James Blunt

When James Blunt's songs get stripped down to the simple arrangements of piano and acoustic guitar, the (melo)drama come to the foreground, and this rawboned collection finds the singer emoting with falsetto-straining vigor. All tunes save one, "No Bravery," are taken from All the Lost Souls, but the most imaginative revision happens with "1973" – here transformed into a somber shadow of its disco-dancing, radio single self. It's with some relief that Blunt's blockbuster, "You're Beautiful," is left off, though an alternate edit exists on various compilations for Blunt completists.