A crooner and deep voice that is reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and Chet Baker are the components of Shamus Dark's tenor.

Queasy listening as described by Shamus and that it definitely is. Shamus's desire to seek a new, younger audience who have not heard of jazz classics, as stated in an interview with Jeff Brown from elevolutionofmedia.com, like some of those featured in his debut album such as 'You Don't Know What Love Is' and 'Good Morning Heartache', is certainly fulfiled.

This album stands out for me as it takes me back to an era of true music and vocals, an era I'm not entirely familiar with and yet now, after listening to Shamus's album, I feel much acquainted. Attempts by modern jazz singers like Michael Buble, Jamie Cullum and singers attempting jazz like Robbie Williams and Robert Downing Jr. (an actor for that matter) do not come close in comparison to this interesting Shamus.

His voice carries the genre in a style that is close to the legends and gives you a sense of contemplation. You feel his blues, his need to express, his need to sing and show the beauty of jazz. You feel you get a sense of him.

The creative CD cover sets the mood of what there is to come from this album. If you don't like the music, at least appreciate the flap. The design of drunks, fallen and broken bottles, the puking man outside the bar, 1960s style microphone, ceiling fan with hostess next to the jukebox reinstates the idea of where all of this came from - refer to www.shamusdark.com for all the info you need on his past. For those of you who are curious now, the design is the Sling Sling bar in Penang where Shamus was discovered.

Makes perfect sense for a debut album. The mood is morose with charcoal like colours dominating the whole sleeve which helps to set the jazzy gloom Shamus seems to want himself to be associated with, although I think his album doesn't necessarily have all the elements of misery as he makes it out to be.

It's not entirely happiness either but an existential place where the line between misery and content is too thin to really separate the two. There are a couple of tracks like 'The End Of The World' and 'The End Of A Love Affair' where his voice goes a little up tempo, and dare I say it, happy sounding! Ironic that both are the end of something that gets uplifted vocals.

The first opening track 'Angel Eyes' sets the standard of the album. With a bluesy tune and jazzy tone, his voice is initiated as a deep, brooding character with a clear and smooth essence. His voice is something that contradicts itself; it can be both melancholic yet celebratory and smooth yet rough. Just like I said before, neither happy nor entirely sad.

My favourite 'The Party's Over' has a slow soul of Jill Scott and kind of hip hop Q-Tip or Mos Def like quality hidden within it and instruments that make it a perfect soundtrack to a rainy, stormy day meant for you to stay indoors enjoying the cool of the muffled raindrops behind closed windows with this track played loudly while you sit in a long chair leaning back, eyes half closed, cigarette in one hand and a hard stiff drink in the other.

The ethnic attempts at being modern in the album do stand out, to say the least. Track 9 'Willow Weep For Me' has the modern Chinese touch in it with a non-jazz yet misery sounding element of erhu and shakuhachi playing in it. It gives a creepy, eerie feel to the song but his voice provides a melody that brings the song back out of the uncomfortable zone it wants to become into an awe sounding good kind of weird.

I told you this man sounds contradictory! The electro is very 80s and all of it seems misplaced but his voice pulls it all together rather eloquently. Track 10 'I Get Along Without You Very Well' attempts the Indian here with a sitar, tabla and flute. I don't find it impressive.

The sitar doesn't seem to have a purpose in there and only makes it sound cliche because of the instruments. The music and his voice don't compliment each other either. An uninspiring attempt and the strings of the sitar at the end make you want to cringe up. The rest of the album is beautiful, truly jazzy and crooning while the ending tracks are more electro sounding. There is a blending of a 'modern' electric world with the old 'jazzy blues'.

This is a great introduction to jazz and, more importantly, to this quintessential character of Shamus Dark. An amazing debut, I will give him that, and his story makes an excitable read by Flann O'Neil. It all seems to fit in together with his debut from the cover design to the tracks chosen. Check the site out, hear the tracks, buy the album. This is one person I'll be keeping an eye on. Just to see what happens, if nothing else.