From start to finish this album delivers brilliantly. With acoustic guitar and vocals at its centre, Newton displays how he is an artist with a clear identity, who has had longevity in his career through consistent development and regular album releases. This is album number 6 and ties together the last 5 perfectly by displaying all the highlights of Newton’s back catalogue so far! In addition, 3 new songs, ‘Don’t Leave Me Waiting’, ‘Wish I Could Wake Up’ and ‘Take What You Want’ are featured. Whilst Part 1 is all original songs (Apart from a cover of ‘Teardrop’), Part 2 of the album is a covers album that showcases another string to Newton’s bow.

As to the best songs on the album, the very fact that this is a best of album makes that hard to conclude, but my personal favourites are, ‘Write It On My Skin’, ‘Don’t Leave Me Waiting’ and ‘Passing Planes’. Whilst the album is centred around guitar and vocals it displays the fact that Newton is more than your average singer-songwriter, offering everything from songs such as ‘Clouds’, which utilises guitar tapping techniques, through to ‘Shadow Boxing’, which offers more of a focus on atmospheric synths combined with guitar.

The covers album offers some inventive takes on all the covers that Newton has been known to play live, including a cover of Sponge Bob Square Pants! A standout cover is ‘Pure Imagination’ as it is perfectly delicate and captures the sentiment of the lyric brilliantly.

Overall, this album shines a light on all the highlights of Newton’s career so far and offers the perfect easy listening album!

[4.5/5 Stars]