Album Review: Rumer - Boys Don’t Cry

Where other recent adult-contemporary acts like Norah Jones and Michael Bublé had some genre marked out for them on their debut records, Rumer's Seasons Of My Soul didn't slot so quickly and conveniently into classification. The follow-up record is then not just a matter of sticking to or drifting from the genre.

Boys Don't Cry sees Rumer, again produced by Steve Brown, tackling a dozen songs from the '70s. The record places her voice as a distinct centre point. It's that voice that might inspire repeat listening, the remarkable colour on an otherwise too polished album.

The record faithfully captures that '70s singer/songwriter vibe of Carole King, Rikki Lee Jones, Suzanne Vega and Joni Mitchell, which is hardly surprising considering the source material. At times it's reminiscent of the mellow parts of Laura Nyro's records, particularly so on Same Old Tears On A New Background. Then Just For A Minute strays too far into by-numbers adult contemporary. Hall & Oates' Sara Smile is an energetic high point of a rather smooth and sometimes too easy listening album.

It's less of a statement and a complete work than her first record. It's stylish and well instrumented but lacking overall personality. That's not entirely because it is a covers record; Madeleine Peyroux's Careless Love is a covers record with personality, though her follow-up lacked it in this same way. Rumer has interpreted the songs well but not made them her own. And in the end, the record is just that – pretty good reinterpretations of those songs; smooth and easy to listen to, but they slip away just as smoothly.