Fool In Love sees Guernsey/London based singer-songwriter Joe Corbin pick up where his debut EP, Brixton Sky, left off — marrying blues with more relaxed styles to make something of his own.

Still Get High starts things off and, while it can be an invigorating stomp of a track live, here it provides a redemptive scene setter for the rest of the EP with maybe a more positive outlook than past releases though it feels like it fades out just as it really starts to get going.

Juliette is one of two outright plaintive acoustic ballads, along with closer Wild, that subtlety add piano, drums and backing vocals to Corbin’s acoustic guitar and lead vocal foundation to create a track that I could hear getting mainstream attention and airplay in the right places.

Title track, Fool In Love, is as smooth as they come but doesn’t lose any feeling or genuine soulfulness for it with an openness and honesty that stands out here but is key for the whole record.

Probably my highlight of the set, Lonely Town, takes a slightly different subject but with a similar feel and meaning to the rest and is a subtlety delivered but astute view of city life that picks up a real swinging rhythm as it goes on (something I’m always a sucker for) and particularly left me wanting to hear this live with a full band.

Fool In Love then closes with the aforementioned Wild, another fine ballad that at once feels deeply personal to Corbin but with a universality to its subject that, along with the delivery, makes it a captivating way to end things.

The production, from Charlie Sherborne, elevates the good songs to be great and the great songs to be even more so as Joe’s basic acoustic tracks are augmented by a range of sounds that enhance the songs but never lose the focus and heart of them that comes from Joe’s voice.

Fool In Love then is a set of mature songs exploring fairly run of the mill singer-songwriter themes but in a way that is engaging, accessible and both terrifically musical and lyrical.

Now that they are out in the world I have to say I’d love to see Joe capitalise on these songs in a fully realised live environment, as, while he’s great solo and with blues and folk bands, I feel a full band focussed on this material (along with that on Brixton Sky) would be truly special.