Album: JD Southern, Natural History (Entertainment One)

As the co-writer of huge hits for The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther was one of the original architects of the Laurel Canyon sound so revered by Kalli.

Alongside some so-so newer material, this latest set revisits earlier triumphs in JD's new style, which owes more to MOR jazz than rock or country. It's not as successful as his 2009 comeback If The World Was You, being something of a halfway house: "The Sad Cafe" suffers from having David Sanborn's sax replaced by polite trumpet, while only John Jorgenson's classical guitar rescues "New Kid In Town" from terminal stasis. And denied those uplifting harmonies on the chorus, "Best Of My Love" sinks into soupy blandness. The general air of languid enervation is best summed up by the sax break on "Silver Blue", which can barely be bothered.

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