Love Scenes

Love Scenes is almost a song-for-song replay of Beverley Craven's first album. On the one hand, this means it's a good set, but on the other, it doesn't say much for her growth as a writer or recording artist. Paul Samwell-Smith produces again, and Craven supplies nine new songs (plus one ABBA cover), sticking to the narrow formula she'd established two years earlier. Thus we have a love song to her daughter ("Mollie's Song"), and one of her trademark gushing odes to lost love ("Love is the Light"). To be fair, there are one or two new ideas — at one point, Craven tries her hand at political songwriting ("Hope"), but her insights are less than searing. What saves Love Scenes are her consistently strong, impressive melodies and sublime, swelling love songs, particularly "Lost Without You" and "Feels Like the First Time" — gorgeous tear-jerkers, both as strong as "Promise Me." Love Scenes made the U.K. Top Ten, but its string of minor hit singles wasn't enough to sustain long-term sales, and the album disappeared quickly.