Taio Cruz: 'Rokstarr'

Taio Cruz's debut album was a consistently impressive collection of catchy, well-crafted R&B songs – so much so, in fact, that it made Simon Cowell a fan and earned the young Londoner songwriting assignments for Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke. If Departure had a fault, it was that it lacked uptempo cuts to match the dancefloor rush of Cruz's breakthrough hit, 'Come On Girl'.

Well, he's certainly righted that wrong on Rokstarr, the follow-up album recently renamed, in rather dispiriting fashion, after Cruz's fashion brand. Bangin' lead single 'Break Your Heart', which recently spent three weeks at No.1, sets the agenda for the disc's opening patch. 'Dirty Picture' dips its toes into electro-house waters, 'No Other One' is essentially 'Break Your Heart' part two, and 'Forever Love' is an epic club track that recalls Seal's 'Killer'. Also included is 'Take Me Back', the Tinchy Stryder smash which Cruz co-wrote and guested on earlier this year.

However, just as you expect his most famous fan might reach for a Robson & Jerome CD, Rokstarr undergoes a metamorphosis. When Cruz told DS last month that "half the album is uptempo and dancey, whereas the other half is... leaning more towards Coldplay and Take That," he really wasn't joking. The album's latter stretch is filled with big-hearted pop anthems that seem designed to get mobile phones waving in the air at The O2 Arena. 'Falling In Love' and 'Only You' both sound like synthier versions of 'Greatest Day', while 'Feel Again' has a big falsetto chorus, lashings of strings and guitars that bring to mind 'Chasing Cars'.

Trouble is, the album's two halves don't sit comfortably alongside each other - despite the use of 'I'll Never Love Again', a midtempo offering that already appeared on Departure, as a slightly cynical bridging track. The whiff of an identity crisis doesn't exactly help matters. At the start of Rokstarr, Cruz flirts with playing the lothario, pledging to "love and leave ya", urging R&B siren Ke$ha to "take a dirty picture", and saluting his lady for wanting to go twice "even when we tired". By the end, however, he's back to being the sensitive soul we met on Departure. On 'Feel Again', the one-time heartbreaker even sings about nursing his own broken heart.

The result is a record that's rather less than the sum of its parts. Rokstarr may not feature a single duff moment - even UK bonus track 'The 11th Hour' is enjoyable - but it feels more like a pair of EPs shoved together than a cohesive collection of music. Next time out the indisputably talented Cruz will have to choose who he wants to be, noting, one would hope, that Gary Barlow doesn't write lyrics like "Rokstarr shades keep me looking so stunning" in a bid to flog sunglasses.



> Click here to read our recent interview with Taio Cruz