Here's the pedigree for Dublin's Fran King: opened for David Mead, Brendan Benson and Tears for Fears. Helped out Pugwash on his Jollity album. That should give you a pretty good idea of what Fran King sounds like, and Beautification lives up to the standards of his colleagues.
Another name to throw into the mix is Neil Finn; in fact this album reminds me a lot of the Finn-ish David William disc that's residing near the top of my best of 2006 list. This album actually came out last June, but I've only come across it in the last week; had I been aware of its existence, it may have very well secured a top 20 spot for 05. Aside from the bookending title track instrumentals, Beautification is one great midtempo number after another (no out-and-out ballads, no rockers either). Particular highlights are "When You Come Around", "Never Enough", "Misunderstood" and "Fine Day". The first three of these can be streamed at his myspace page. Here's an mp3:
Never Enough (radio edit)
Several additional tracks can be sampled at cd baby, which is the best place to purchase it. Fran King isn't going to reinvent the wheel here, but if you like sophisticated adult pop in the vein of Mead, Finn, et al, you'll love this disc.
Never Enough is a really good song. A little bit of George Harrison guitar there.
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Bob