I got this album back in nov-05,I love every song. I listen to it every day LOVE IT.

James Blunt's rise has been a quick one: "discovered" at SXSW in March, 2003, his debut album was the UK's highest selling album in 2005, easily beating Coldplay for the year's top spot. Even now, closing in on a year since its release, it remains near the top of the UK album charts, and it looks like the US may follow suit as well. Most surprising, Blunt turns out to be more than just a pretty face with a falsetto voice, as he writes or co-writes all the songs, and plays several instruments.

"Back to Bedlam" (10 tracks, 39 min.) brings mostly heartfelt songs on love and friendship, not unlike, say, Damien Rice or David Gray, but with an immediate accessibility not found elsewhere. Mega-hit "You're Beautiful" (2nd single) proves that point: you've heard it once, and you just can't NOT like it. Better in my book are songs like "High" (1st single) and, best of all on here, "Wisemen", with a great dramatic tone to it. In the long instrumental outro of "So Long Jimmy", there's a nice shout-out to the Doors' "Riders on the Storm". The last 2 songs of the album deal with Blunt's experiences as a NATO soldier in Kosovo, and in particular "No Bravery" is quite effective. The only song I really don't like is "Goodbye My Lover" (3rd single), in which Blunt's voice sounds mostly irritating. The album is helped enormously by the track sequencing and running order (under 40 min.): the music flows by smoothly and before you know it you're at the end of the album.

The immediate accessibility of the album bothers me, in the sense that I wonder if I will still like this 20 turns from now, or 2 years from now. But right now, I just like playing this album a lot. Based on the enormous popularity of this album, Blunt can be viewed as "the common man's Damien Rice", and yes, I call it a musical guilty pleasure.

My wife picked up a couple discs recently, one for her and one for me. Long story short, we like them both. James Blunt's "Back to Bedlam" in the evening and Deep Purple's "Rapture of the Deep" by day.

Blunt's disc settles my wife down after a hard day's work and puts her in a friendly mood. She says he sounds a little like Rod Stewart. Blunt's music reminds me of that "soft rock" from the 70's! While Deep Purple's immense and clever brand of rock gets me through those long commutes. My wife likes the new Purple disc, but admits it's a little "too intense" on a regular basis, but admits Ian Gillan's lyrics are a bit deeper than Blunt's.

These two albums need to be played a few times in order to reap the full benefits. Both are strong statements that evoke a powerful and different kind of energy, a musical ying and yang. Though my wife agrees with me, Deep Purple's "Rapture of the Deep" is the masterpiece here. But, I couldn't say that about Blunt's "Back to Bedlam." His album is pleasant, kind of a musical tissue; buy it, use it, throw it away.

Back to Bedlam = 2 1/2 stars
Rapture of the Deep = 5 stars