It’s virtually impossible, you might say, to do a bad version of a Burt Bacharach/Hal David song, such is the timelessness of the melodies and the universality of the lyrics (even the Stranglers’ mangled version of ‘Walk On By’ worked brilliantly). Thus Ronan Keating’s faithful rendering of nine of the best known songs from the 1960s hit-making team, while less than groundbreaking in execution was always going to be an interesting exercise.
The string arrangements by the great man himself are never less than sumptuous and, depending on whether you’re a fan of Keating’s singing style or not, he makes a fair fist of perennials such as ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’, ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ and the aforementioned ‘Walk On By’. Still there are always poited comparisons lurking: a slower than usual ‘Look Of Love’ and ‘I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself’ don’t come anywhere near the breathy sensuousness of Dusty Springfield’s definitive readings. And Keating doesn’t sound comfortable with ‘Arthur’s Theme’.
Where he really takes a wrong turn here is by including a song from Elvis Costello’s successful collaboration with Bacharach on the 1999 album Painted From Memory. The song in question, ‘This House is Empty Now’, which touches on the subject of divorce may or may not have been chosen to reflect Keating’s recent and very public domestic difficulties. But with an arrangement and vocal approach almost exactly similar to Costello’s it’s comes across as a less than successful homage.
That said, it is a sign of the extent to which he has grown as an artist that Ronan does reasonable justice to the legacy of a legend. Either way, fans of Keating will undoubtedly enjoy hearing these classics once again.