“Hello, I was wondering if you could help me? I’m looking for some good quality, terribly mainstream guitar pop. If you make it a little bluesy and very American I would be much appreciative.” So what was I handed? An album called “The Other Side” by a sickeningly young guitar playing action figure called Patrick Droney.

The CD goes in the stereo and up pops track 1- Need Me Now. It’s all very manufactured, preened to the hilt with an intriguing guitar solo ala Marty McFly halfway through. It is, as one would expect, very easy to listen to. Think John Mayer meets Stevie Raye Vaughan, with a mixer of orangade (not the band, the fizzy pop).

Mr Droney, for the age of sixteen, is a ruddy good guitarist. There are grown men in bands who can only dream of playing more than three chords, let alone playing masterful solos like this young protégé. However, the album itself is a little…wet. The production is close to flawless, the guitars are all very precise and it is obviously aimed at a young audience. Being a youthful squeaky clean musician making easy listening pop tunes is going to be a good decision for a pretty teenage boy like this. Without any doubt there will always be the crowd wanting this but there’s a lack of personality. An album without the odd flaw is like tea without a biscuit. By track 5 the album is starting to “Drone(y)” on. Save Me, like many of the other songs on this record, has a heavy guitar solo which rips through everything and then dulls down to be replaced by powerful and mature (for a boy of 16) vocals.

There is a problem with a lack of musical maturity with anyone who writes an album at this tender age. Overall the album is good. A little dull, likeable and “nice” for some listeners, however it would be tremendously advantageous for Patrick to live a few more years, discover more music and develop his song writing.

This debut album is good but one thinks that given more time, knowledge and energy, future albums will be less palatable and more enjoyable, if that makes any sense at all?