As an exercise in singer-songwriter recordings, Mike Marlin's 'Man On The Ground' offers little that's new. As you might expect from the kind of balladeer Marlin presents himself to be, his songs are filled with self-chastisement/analysis ('The Magician' and 'Lost And Found') and rose-tinted visions of the past ('Steve McQueen' and 'Girl From Chelsea Bridge'). It's all done with the prerequisite metaphors of nature ('first light in the sky/the invisible sun') and journeys ('I'm gonna travel the world/relive the journey'). But this album is far more than the sum of those ten-a-penny parts. Teetering somewhere between 80s Bowie and Tom McRae, Marlin's songs are desperate searches for 'the happy ever after', even if he isn't sure he believes in it. It's a genuine, world weariness that seeps through the album with plenty of religious allusions, betraying a quest for redemption. 'If you've never been lost then you can't be found' runs a prominent line in 'Lost And Found'. The only trouble, as 'Hymn To Disappointment' testifies, is Martin's not sure he ever will be found. And while he's producing such poetic marvels as this, is that something we want for him? Someone, please, call off the search.