Anglo-Irish Hackney singer-rapper Michael Stafford is clearly aiming at the lucrative pop-soul-rap market stretching from Amy Winehouse to Mav's old flatmate, Plan B. The not-very-maverick's debut, however, could have been put together by a focus group. There are Adele-style betrayal anthems (No One, Used to Have It All), stoner soul (Let Me Go) and faux Jamaican patois. The songs are variable – some may raise an eyebrow at the suggestion "Babylon" stalks Stoke Newington, and Shooting the Stars loses something for a reference to being stopped and searched "for the way I look" (like a skinhead Michael Owen).
And yet, despite such clunkers, Lonely Are the Brave isn't a disgrace, and the Maverick can really sing. His luxuriant pipes stretch themselves gloriously on old-school soul standout I Don't See the Sun. His merits are spread too thin, but there is a talent here.
