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Brian Kennedy On Song 2: Red Sails in the Sunset Curb Records * 

How can a voice so sublime be mired in such mediocrity? Remember the heights to which he soared with Sweetmouth and Van? Brian Kennedy has departed the heavens and can now be located in a lurid limbo where only blue rinses and stalwarts of the afternoon tea dance dare to tread. His artistic confusion is twofold: a repertoire that swings from the diabetes-inducing saccharine of Sweet Sixteen to the jaded passions of The Irish Rover is bad enough; marry those with execrable duets with Lulu, Barry McGuigan and The Celtic Tenors and what do you get? A horrendously Phil Coulter-ised Brian Kennedy, content to air his divine vocal chords in the dullest of company. Urgently in need not so much of a revamp, as a complete reinvention. www.briankennedy.co.uk

Siobhán Long