Singer, songwriter, arranger and producer Neal Hoffman is unlikely to do a cover version of Je Ne Regrette Rien. The nine original songs on his solo debut (previously he led the band Amphibic) are full of what-ifs and might-have-beens.
Fortunately the pathos doesn't lapse into self pity mainly because he has the kind of voice, with shades of Neil Hannon or Scott Walker, that simply sounds best singing sad songs.
Hoffman is described as a "quintessential international Londoner"; he was born in Germany but has many connections in Scandinavia and reads Jo Nesbø in the original Norwegian!
The burst of twangy guitar on the opening track,Under A Different Sun, is a one-off but also illustrates that he is strongly influenced by classic Americana.
This comes over most memorably on the album's standout track - Not Johnny Cash, a song about finding your own trajectory in life and full of witty lines : "I'm not going to Jackson, I don't have no ticket for Reno, Haven't felt like shooting no-one yet".
The singer is fond of revisiting the past even though this only reminds him how things were once better - (Give Way); "I used to have such fun" (One Of Them). All this leads him to wonder, quite logically, "Is our future in the past?" (Vanity And Pride).
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A solution is at hand though with recommendations to follow the heart rather than the head (Instinct And Feel) or simply giving into to the notion that time can be wasted creatively in the romantic Summer Time Bliss which closes the album on a positive note.
These melodic tunes are improved by delicate string arrangements and on the aforementioned Summer Time Bliss he makes us of an old, cheap East German glockenspiel.
The devil is in such details and while Hoffman may have inclinations towards Nordic noir this is a gorgeously life-affirming record where silver linings outnumber clouds.
Neal Hoffman's Amphibic Records website
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