Robson & Jerome CD RCA, 74321323902, 1995, 13 Track

The mid-1990s may go down as that period of history in which Britpop and trip hop battled it out for supremacy, but that would be to deny what was really shifting from the record shops of Britain. Here's the story then: two actors from the ITV drama Soldier Soldier are approached to record a couple of standards for a spin-off single; before you know it, a flat-faced man and his diminutive Geordie friend are serenading the nation from the top of the charts with "Unchained Melody". (In fairness, no-one ever claimed that it was as good as the original.) The point of Robson And Jerome as musical project was not to improve on classics like "Daydream Believer", "Up On The Roof", "This Boy" and ... well you can guess the rest--rather to reproduce them as faithfully as possible using a couple of familiar faces. In fairness, orchestras are lavishly deployed and the boys can certainly hold a note. If Robson Green fulfils his ambitions of a Hollywood career, this'll be enough to make it a kitsch classic of the 21st Century. --Peter Paphides