With youthful vigour, Stewart tries his hand at a dance-pop banger with Gabriella, a sun-kissed ode to a summer liaison that marries EDM-style beats with funk-lite guitar riffs akin to the best Chic songs. Erupting with a scorching guitar solo, it’s full of wah-wah, gleeful “Arriba!”s and Latin-flavoured trumpet-toting; crying out for a tropical house makeover, it wouldn’t take much for a remix to go down a storm in Pacha.
The sunny vibe continues on the nostalgic All My Days, on which Stewart sings of escaping to a beachside shack in Mexico (“They’ll teach us how to cha-cha while drinking piña colada”) over a cheerful mix of Spanish guitar and mariachi horns. Sounding more energised than he has in a long time, he even takes on a zesty cover of Soul Brothers Six’s song Some Kind Of Wonderful – perhaps better known as a 1974 hit for Grand Funk Railroad – revelling in an R&B stomper that sees him trade smoky vocals with female backing singers in the song’s delightful call-and-response refrain.
Stewart has even more fun paying tribute to Marc Bolan on Born To Boogie, swaggering along confidently to a T. Rex-style riff and gruffly celebrating the glam-rock icon’s enduring legacy (“He stood five foot four but was a giant of his generation”). Next up, Kookooramabama gives The Beach Boys’ Kokomo a run for its money, propelling itself along to a memorable vocal hook and a synth-based rhythm, with Stewart singing unashamedly of spontaneous lust while his raspy tones bump up against a jaunty sax.
I Can’t Imagine appears to be Stewart’s romantic tribute to his wife, Penny Lancaster. A pleasant 80s-style power ballad about waking up with the woman you love, it sweeps listeners up with a buoyant key change fit for drive-time radio. The Tears Of Hercules’ title track, meanwhile, lends the album a touch of Broadway magic courtesy of musical composer Marc Jordan: an affecting piano-led showtune about ageing and life-long reminiscences, its swell of bagpipes and Celtic flutes offers another rousing moment on the album.
Elsewhere, the slow acoustic ballad Hold On sends a message to a troubled world full of societal divisions, its hearty chorus accompanied with verses decrying racism and bigotry, and calling for peace and tolerance (“With cities divided and the homeless crying/Equality for all someday”).