The follow-up to Hall's 1997 debut, Medicine 4 My Pain, The Other Side is more pared-down, with its spare, clean arrangements and cool restraint. As well as writing the songs, Hall has played all the instruments, and this has resulted in a more personal, intimate set. Hall is fast becoming an urban soul poet like Bobby Womack, investing his songs with an intelligent male sensitivity. There's "If I Had To Choose", his letter to an estranged father; or the insouciant "Stepping With Victor", where a seemingly flippant lover reveals his insecurities ("She was sleeping with Victor / and it's fine"); or the self-deprecating "Hard Way", where he croons: "All I'm left with is two prophylactics / I thought I came up to par." Smooth and funky, yet very "real", Hall proves that he is more than a one-hit wonder. --Lucy O'Brien