Tom: Now, I have a sneaking respect for Josh Groban. He knows his audience, he knows what music they like, and he’s not afraid to lampoon himself – see his appearance on Buzzcocks or his cameo in this, the best mock-charity-video ever.
It’s the run-up to Christmas, which means – of course – new album and new single to promote it.
Tom: So, here’s the Groban checklist:
- Slow intro.
- Steadily rising verse.
- Vaguely positive lyrics.
- Occasional breaks to falsetto.
- Heartfelt but ultimately incredibly superficial music video.
Five for five. And I’ll bet the new album is being bought for a lot of mums right now.
Tim: Well, indeed – he fits in a not particularly large group of singers who pretty much exist to have their CDs bought for elderly relatives. Similar acts include Susan Boyle, Il Divo and Michael Bublé (although he’s become a bit more mainstream recently), and it’s a fairly good place to be: the people who buy your music probably won’t realise if you stopped being good three years ago, so you can’t really go wrong.