Following a shrewd side hustle for which he didn't have to lift a finger -- Ofenbach's 2017 club remix of Never Twice single "Katchi" flung him to the top of pop charts across Europe -- Nick Waterhouse gets back to business with his self-titled fourth album. The singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer receives sympathetic co-production from Paul Butler, known most for work with Michael Kiwanuka and St. Paul the Broken Bones, while his support comes from a mix of sure-handed musicians familiar and new to his sessions, plus vital longtime backing vocalists Roberta Freeman and Carol Hatchett. It's all true to the scholar's past work, remaining in that throwback mode connecting variants of '50s and '60s R&B with a little energy from garage rock -- as played in an orderly, climate-controlled garage with enough room to fit a band and a horn section, but a garage nonetheless. Waterhouse's approach here is as painstaking as ever, and the writing is on par with the best across his discography. What puts this set over the top is his performances, which are more spirited and less mannered, consequently less like those of an entertainer. The ballads and instrumentals are typically fine, but the bulk of the more energized numbers provide lasting thrills, often conveyed in an agitated state prompting Waterhouse to bare his teeth like never before. "Man Leaves Town," a castigation of a chump, is borderline ferocious. "Song for Winners," starting with a "Shakin' All Over" fake-out, is similarly vexed and tightly coiled, possibly addressed to the same person: "I hear no fearlessness, only fear." The fire spreads to a cover of Jo Armstead's "I Feel an Urge Coming On" (1968), wonderfully fevered and truer to the ace songwriter and original Ikettes version than the Syl Johnson take. There's quite a howl in there, too. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi

1		By Heart
2		Song for Winners
3		I Feel an Urge Coming On
4		Undedicated
5		Black Glass
6		Wreck the Rod
7		Which Was Writ
8		Man Leaves Town
9		Thought & Act
10		El Viv
11		Wherever She Goes (She Is Wanted)

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