★★★★★
Last year, after a decade in the game, gentle U.K. folk-pop depressive Mike Rosenberg (a.k.a. Passenger) had a global smash with his feather-soft breakup tune "Let Her Go." Perhaps unsurprisingly, his first album since finding success is somewhat more upbeat. With a gravelly but delicate voice and melodies that can evoke Ed Sheeran, who's a friend, or Cat Stevens, he takes on his indecisive twenties on "Rolling Stone" and "27," attempts a road epic on "Riding to New York," and, on "Scare Away...
- www.rollingstone.com
2014-06-10
★★★★★
PASSENGER - Whispers
Album:
Whispers
Artist: Passenger
Label: Nettwerk
Release Date: June 10, 2014
www.nettwerk.com
BY LEE ZIMMERMAN
Although having nothing to do with the Swedish heavy metal band of the same name, this Passenger -- the nom de plume of British singer/songwriter Michael Rosenberg -- shares the fact that on this side of the Great Pond, they're all but...
- blurtonline.com
2014-06-10
★★★★★
Talented musicians make their craft look ridiculously easy. And after listening to Passenger's sixth studio album, Whispers, anyone would feel like they can grab a guitar and begin a swooning love ballad that captures the essence of youth.
Of course, if you do so, you'll soon realise how much time, effort and talent has gone into Whispers...
- www.beat.com.au
2014-06-09
★★★★★
If Ed Sheeran didn't exist, Mike "Passenger" Rosenberg would probably be the deceptively wimpish balladeer bringing home the Brit and Ivor Novello awards. Despite scoring one of 2013's biggest singles with Let Her Go, Rosenberg is still a relative unknown - something alluded to on this album's title track: "Everyone's feeling the ugly noise/ I don't know what they're talking about/ All I need's a whisper in a world that only shouts...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-06-06
★★★★★
British singer-songwriter Mike Rosenberg is an accomplished busker who has spent a great deal of time living, touring and recording in Australia. He is joined on this twelve-track album by musicians such as Boy and Bear skinsman Tim Hart, bassist Cameron Undy and keyboardist Stu Hunter from Katie Noonan & The Captains. Rosenberg has created a wonderfully rich modern folk sound that is highly seductive and punctuated with deft and wise lyrics...
- www.beat.com.au
2012-03-07
★★★★★
Having toured the length and breadth of the country in recent months, September sees the fruition of a creative partnership between Mike Rosenberg and Andrew Phillips with the release of Passenger's debut album 'Wicked Man's Rest'. At first glance you might be forgiven for thinking that this is just another one of those middle of the road, whimsical, going nowhere albums...
- www.gigwise.com
2010-11-09
★★★★★
No-one really every asked for electro-pop-folk, and yet somehow, first with Get Cape and now Passenger, it has become part of the musical landscape. Hence the lightweight hooks, paper-thin melodies and insipid vocals that weighs down this album. Driving force Mike Rosenberg is obviously a talented songwriter, and still only 22, but the bland vocal delivery and some incongruous moments, including the frankly creepy stalking jaunt 'Walk You Home' turn adequate songs into three-minute trudges...
- www.clashmusic.com
2010-10-12