No One Wants To Move

That North Dubliner Keith Burke can walk the tightrope between quality material and commercial need without falling off too often is a credit to his sincerity of purpose. No One Wants To Move slots neatly into the singer-songwriter canon alongside Cat Stevens, James Taylor and Chris de Burgh, and there’s a Billy Joel feel to ‘For A Moment’. The ghost of Dire Straits hovers over ‘Piazza Spagna’, while ‘The Last 33 Bus’ has a clever lyric about fidelity and temptation. On songs like ‘Ghosts With Their Eyes On Me’ he reveals a skill in wry observation akin to Ray Davies. The dodgy raggle-taggle of ‘Love And Romans’ sounds very dated, but the tuneful ‘No One Wants To Move’ is an exemplary slice of intelligent folk-rock. This album would make a decent soundtrack for a sultry Mediterranean evening: Burke’s artistry, the skills of his band and the completeness of his songs are worth more than a passing glance.

KEY TRACK: ‘NO ONE WANTS TO MOVE’