David Ford
Album: Charge
Label: Magnolia
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.davidfordmusic.com/

"Charge" is Eastbourne's David Ford's fourth album in eight years, following the release of "I Sincerely Apologise For All The Trouble I've Caused" back in 2005. During that time he's also managed to write a book, "I Choose This - How To Nearly Make It In Music Industry", which recounts his experiences as both songwriter and performer. French legend and tax avoider, Johnny Hallyday, picked up on a couple of Ford's songs and will have more on his next English language album.

In the last couple of years, Ford has been touring extensively in the US and you can pick up how that has influenced this album, in both the sound and place names, both the rock elements and night club sleaze have got more of an American flavour than a local one, it's also something that comes out in the production with both Ford and Foo Fighters engineer/producer James Brown taking time behind the desk.

Perhaps more than his previous releases, "Charge" is a songwriters album and by that I mean every song gets its own space, there is no flow to the album, you could put the album on random play and the album would feel equally right, especially as there's not a duff song in the set, this is definitely a ten song album, no filler.

Ford can turn his hand from rich ballads, through rock 'n' roll and into a more soul jazz sound and he succeeds in each. There is nothing on the album to fault individually, but it does come across more as a radio show by an individual artist rather than an album

Neil King