Back to Bacharach - Michael Ball

When an artist has been a star of the stage in London's West End, recorded several albums of theatre related music and even entered the Eurovision song contest and everything Michael Ball touched was a hit, with a loyal and never fading fan-base, he could record almost anything he chose, and for the Christmas season 2007, he released an album of standards written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David titled Back To Bacharach. An ideal choice for someone of Michael Ball's easy laid back style, the modern day answer to Andy Williams or Perry Como, even if he didn't set out to become that. Virtually all the songs on Back To Bacharach were so well known, it would be difficult not to compare them to the originals, the only difficulty would be knowing exactly which artist did record the original since all of them had been so well covered both by famous and not quite so famous singers. There was nothing to stretch the imagination here, versions of The Look Of Love, Alfie, They Long To Be Close To You and This Guy's In Love With You, all performed in the blandest of vocal styles, perfectly in tune, very pleasant, no chance of alienating any existing fan, but even less chance of acquiring any new ones. The problem with the album lay with the presentation of the songs in such a laid back style, even when he attempted to inject some dramatic sounds such as on Anyone Who Had A Heart, it was nowhere near as exciting as the Cilla Black version over 40 years previously. Make It Easy On Yourself and Arthur's Theme were both in former versions, satisfying songs, full of richness, but Michael Ball stripped them of all emotions and left them as little more than album filler (which of course they were), but no more so than the lesser known songs on the album, This House Is Empty Now and Reach Out For Me, the former sounding like a workaday musical song and the latter, another attempt at Eurovision. Michael Ball can and has done better than this. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide