AMG Review of Cradlesong

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

With its urgent hooks and surging sincerity, cradlesong is recognizably Thomas, but he's tweaked the formula of his 2005 solo debut, Something to Be, in judicious ways, using his worldbeat inflections as an underpinning instead of flair, something that ties the album together. cradlesong is big music about big issues, even inflating personal issues to the universal. If it seems somewhat out of step with its year, that almost makes Thomas' somber, determined craft admirable: he's doing this not because it'll give him a hit, but because he believes in it.