George Michael: Patience

by ADRIAN THRILLS, Daily Mail

While he contemplates his new solo career, former Westlife singer Bryan McFadden - who announced he was leaving the band on Tuesday - should take a good look at George Michael.

In terms of making the move from pin-up to grown-up, Michael established the template that Robbie Williams, Ronan Keating and Justin Timberlake have all followed.

And, despite the huge sales enjoyed by Robbie, Ronan and Justin, nobody has made the awkward transition from bubblegum favourite to serious 'artiste' with the aplomb of George, who left boy-band Wham! in 1986.

Now, after eight years in which his profile has sunk so low that any talk of a serious comeback could easily have been viewed as an irrelevance, the 40-year-old is back with a new album.

And whatever you may think of him, the good news for fans who lapped up his 1987 solo debut album Faith in their millions is that the aptly-titled Patience is an emphatic return to form.

There's no great musical revolution here: the man who cruised Club Tropicana and danced with a shuttlecock stuffed down his shorts has not made a numetal album; he has adhered to the house, funk and soul styles with which he made his name.

But while he does not break fresh ground, either as a producer or arranger, his performances are still high calibre: the singing is beautiful throughout and the best songs - the floor-filling Precious Box and the gorgeous ballads Round Here and John And Elvis Are Dead - stand comparison with past gems such as Careless Whisper and A Different Corner.

Despite an even spread of reflective ballads and funkier, mid-tempo numbers, it is the dance tracks that make the most immediate impact.

Current top five single Amazing is a sun-kissed, lilting funk tune which harks back to a youth spent dancing in the soul clubs of Watford and Harrow while Cars And Trains is an upbeat dancefloor romp.

Precious Box strikes a more contemporary tone, its hypnotic groove hinting heavily at the disco-house hybrid of French acts such as Daft Punk and Modjo.

As far as the uptempo tracks are concerned, Michael goes astray only when he forgets his songwriting fundamentals and builds tracks around samples: Shoot The Dog and Freeek!, which make references to The Human League and Aaliyah among others, lack the artful, melodic guile of George at his best.

It is on the slower tracks that the singer, whose songwriting has always been noted for its intimacy, opens his heart.

Round Here, one of the most personal songs he has ever written, finds him revisiting his past in order to understand who he's become.

An autobiographical sweep encompasses his parents, his schooldays and even the early career of Wham! alongside old mucker Andrew Ridgeley: 'Two little Hitlers in an old church hall/ Some cheesy covers and those neighbours that bang on the wall/ Andy says: "It's time to show them all round here".'

A similar sense of wistful yearning permeates John And Elvis Are Dead, which namechecks Lennon, Presley, Marvin Gaye and the music of the Seventies and is augmented by a delicate arrangement as carefully manicured as George's designer stubble.

Elsewhere, My Mother Had A Brother is a mournful piano ballad about the suspected suicide of a relative, while the title track laments the state of the world without labouring a political point in the manner of Shoot The Dog.

Patience contains its fair share of sombre reflection. There's always been a solemn streak in Michael's songwriting, which has helped give him the edge over his less substantial peers.

Beneath the morose star, though, lurks an entertaining pop performer and there's enough wit to suggest his sense of humour has not evaporated altogether.

For a major artist to make such a strong comeback after such a long absence is some achievement.

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