'Coz if everything were plain sailing, oh tell me what would there be left to exalt?...

I love me my English pop. Which should make (British) Pop Idol Will Young’s Keep On a no-brainer. However, Young’s third album seems to be a muddied affair at being current, with Young’s voice whining and hidden under too-busy instrumentation at times. When he’s left pretty much alone, like in “All Time Love”, he’s sublime. A couple of the beat-ier number work to some effect, like kiss-off track “Ain’t Such A Bad Place To Be” or the lush “Home”. "Who Am I" is nicely ambient. And admittedly most of the album is listenable, in a “I’m trying real hard to take over from George Michael” way. However it suffers from a severe lack of hooks, and I really can’t remember succinctly many of the songs after hearing the whole disc twice. For a pop album, that’s not good. The worst is the swamp of “Switch It On” which was promoted as a single, no less. With "Happiness", Young channels Basia, and on "Think It Over" he attempts to be funky. At a discount, and if you’re an “Idol” fan, Keep On isn’t horrible. But it’s far from either his debut From Now On, or his supreme sophomore effort Friday’s Child.

Grade: C
Best Cuts: "All Time Love", "Who Am I"
Weakest Links: "Switch It On", "Save Yourself"

Keep On hit #2 on the UK albums chart.
"Switch It On" hit #5 on the UK singles chart.
"All Time Love" made #3 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Who Am I" made #11 on the UK Singles Chart.

Listen: "Home" [Click Link to hear]

Buy: You can pick up Keep On at sites like here and here.

And for the clips...here's the first single "Switch It On"...which I have to admit is way sexy in its "Gay Top Gun" pastiche...