As far as musical heritage goes, having James Taylor and Carly Simon as parents can't exactly be a hindrance to a man's music career. Benjamin Taylor, though, is out to prove that he's come this far on more than just his parentage - the curiously titled The Legend of Kung Folk Part 1 (subtitled The Killing Bite and apparently titled after his personal hybridized style of martial arts) is his third full-length album, but the first on which he's named "Benjamin" instead of "Ben", incidentally. The folk that the title implies is here, in a fusion with soft rock and fairly standard singer-songwriter fare. Opener "Wrong" is something of a distraction though, standing almost wholly on its lovely soul-esque backing vocals, before "She's Gone" and "Wicked Way" set the tone more fully. The latter is a bit of a lyrical oddity, a song from the perspective of a man who openly seeks only sex and nothing else from his prospective lover, saying "I don't plan to break your heart girl / We don't have the time." This is all set to a lilting, lazy acoustic backdrop with little more than clock-like ticks for percussion. It's one of the strongest tracks on this album, which is a pleasant enough but unambitious and rarely memorable set of songs.This is all expertly put together and immaculately produced, but some of the ideas behind these songs are pretty hackneyed and it's all a bit uninventive and clinical. Clinical can be OK, but having to apply that word to uninspiring, slow ballads and woozy soft rock pieces that dominate the album gets tiresome. Taylor knows his music - unsurprisingly - and his voice is warm and inviting, but this album doesn't push the envelope enough to repeat that trick and earn repeated listens. 44%Benjamin Taylor on MySpace