The self-titled fourth studio album from Ed Sheeran’s protégée, Jamie Lawson, is a steady collection of brisk love songs primarily cantered around Lawson’s acoustic guitar and vocal delivery. But as anybody who’s ever been in love will tell you there’s nothing brisk about love – it’s fast, it’s hard, it’s hell. But for all Lawson’s professions of sadness, sorrow, grief and uncontrollable excitement in his hands, love is as mundane as the difference between a HB and a 2B pencil.

Lawson is obviously a talented songwriter but his vocal delivery is a staid, lifeless, robotic and emotionless sound that hits all the notes with military precision but fails to hit the listener’s heartstrings or engage his own during delivery. Happy or sad, Lawson lacks the emotive quotient to make his compositions come to life in a truly believable way.

Even the rolling bass, backbeat and romantic strings of the album’s highlight The Only Conclusion can’t stir Lawson’s voice into life. All Is Beauty, the other standout moment in this collection, showcases Lawson’s ability to pen a radio-friendly lament which is given a seasonal glint thanks to his descending chorus guitar line doubled by a glockenspiel.

If the single Wasn’t Expecting That grabs you then this is the album for you, because Lawson delivers ten other pristine, brisk, radio-friendly, granny-proof variations on his thin understanding of the human heart. Lawson would benefit from taking a leaf out of Jack Antonoff from Bleachers book and exploring his compositions with more emotionally prolific vocalists, because the potential of his compositions are not being fully realised in his own hands.