Phantom Moon

Duncan Sheik has a warm, inviting voice and an easy knack for sad-eyed melodies that makes it tempting to dismiss him as a lightweight, Bruce Hornsby wannabe, especially with the shiny production sheen his songs always seem wrapped in. Such a dismissal is not altogether unwarranted; despite scoring a relatively gargantuan hit back in 1996 with the swirling, pop toe-tapper, “Barely Breathing,” Sheik’s songwriting often feels just this side of insubstantial. But Phantom Moon is a different sort of project for Sheik: a collaboration with playwright Steven Sater where Sheik lends voice and music to lyrics which Sater culled from one of his plays. With his smooth vocal style and straightfaced earnestness, Sheik is in many ways a natural fit for such a theatrical undertaking, but once again, the songwriting lets him down. These songs are as pleasant as they are unchallenging, and though Sater deserves part of the blame for this, he’s got a day job to fall back on. Sheik doesn’t.