Featuring 14 original songs written by Will Barratt over the past 15 years, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, includes a song co-written and performed with Nadim Naaman, plus a solo and a duet from Rebecca Trehearn...

Confessions of a Justified Sinner is West End's rising star Will Barratt's very personal new album. It contains 14 songs (57 min, 14 sec) that Barratt put together over the last 15 years.

Fair play to the man. He could so easily have released a collection of bland tracks that didn't really challenge him, knowing that his fans would buy it anyway. What he's done is write and perform 14 songs that show off his entire vocal range and give fans something a little different, and more personal. I doubt that there are many singers that could deliver all of these tracks with the same amount of perfection.

The album opens on an oddity when compared to the rest of the tracks. 'Give Me Some Time' is an upbeat latin pop influenced track which kicks the LP off with a bang.

There are so many highlights here, but if I had to choose then I'd have to pick the song that pays tribute to his mother, who sadly is no longer with us, 'I Miss You'. It's a beautiful song and features just Barratt and his piano.

'Tickertape Girl' was probably the one song that turned me off. It has a rather cheesy flute and xylophone (I'm guessing) segment that makes it sound like one of those awful school music programmes from the '70s/'80s.

'Surrender', performed by Rebecca Trehearn, has a little mix of everything that makes a great Musical song, including obvious influences from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera.

This is a wonderfully diverse album that both Barratt's fans, and fans of Musicals in general, will get a huge amount of pleasure out of.

9

Nick Smithson