Magic Hotel

Toploader burst into the mainstream in 2000 with their anthemic, feelgood single ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’ – a cover of an obscure 1972 King Harvest tune – and the subsequent hit album, Onka’s Big Moka. With their unfashionable hairstyles, inoffensive manner and daytime radio sound, they were never going to be the critics’ darlings, but the record-buying public cared not one iota and sales of their debut album duly hit the quarter-of-a-million mark in the UK alone.

Their sophomore effort, Magic Hotel, is certainly a competent follow-up but, crucially, it lacks a really obvious smash hit in the ‘Dancing In The Moonlight’ mould. A one-time support band to fellow critical pariahs Bon Jovi, Toploader specialise in an uncomplicated form of rootsy, denim-clad soft rock not a million miles from Richie Sambora and co. Occasionally – as on the piano interlude and woozy, string-laden coda of ‘Only Desire’ – they’ll push the boat out a little, but for the most part Magic Hotel simply picks up where Onka left off, making this a polite, slickly produced blend of soul, pop, rock and blues.