I caught Mike, also called Passenger (from the band he once fronted), on Jools Holland’s TV show, Later,  just before we went to China and was intrigued enough by his simple singer-songwriter style and unusual voice to check him out further. On the plane his latest album, All The Little Lights, was featured so I wiled away most of the long-haul flight listening to it. There aren’t many albums, even among my favourites, that I can repeat play more than a couple of times but with Passenger’s latest release I made a big exception – both ways, Newcastle to Shanghai and Beijing back home. I’m still playing the copy I purchased from Amazon (I wanted the original plastic, not just a download) in the car and keep finding new delights and really can’t name a weak or bum track.

The tunes and arrangements are quite light and poppy but the lyrics are clever yet honest (as far as I know), witty, down to earth and sometimes profound or mystical. There’s also a deeply sad edge to many songs: the title track for example says we are born with thousands of little lights inside us that shine in the dark to show us the way but that in the end they, ‘…all burn out one day.’ The hit song, Let Her Go (topping the charts in many countries) is also pessimistic saying, ‘dreams come slow but go so fast’ and in the end you…’only know love when you let her go – and you let her go.’ Like so many singer-songwriter’s lyrics it could sound maudlin and self-pitying but is strangely uplifting. A great song on a great album.

The photo, incidentally, shows our man busking which he still does, apparently, despite selling out all venues on tours. He mentions this fact in an Australian TV interview (the country he had his first success in despite coming from Brighton, England