The album True Believer is a series of literary pop songs that present Cullen as a smart, if slightly depressed, observer. Although he comes off sounding brutally honest, you get the funny feeling he's singing in character, rather than spilling his own guts. Even so, one called "Nothing Special," which works in a horn part, is a moving song.

If anything, Michael Cullen is a true believer, primarily in sad romantic songs. And that makes him one true disciple of Leonard Cohen, indeed.