Children in the 1970s often donned a towel as a cape and leapt off garden sheds, pretending to be Superman. Their ascents went the way of Sam Duckworth's career to date: get cape, wear cape, flop. Emerging in 2006 as a sort of Billy Bragg with a laptop, his well-received Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager album barely grazed the Top 40, although he is back with his peculiar pseudonym and newly recruited superpowers. His forthcoming Searching for the Hows and Whys album has been produced by Nitin Sawhney, and Duckworth unveils its songs with an enormous production and a brass section. The overall effect is not a million miles from Mark Ronson at the Brits - somewhat incongruous in a venue barely bigger than Duckworth's enormous tourbus.

In Clark Kent-type spectacles and sharp suit, the man refers to his days promoting underground Leeds bands in his hometown of Southend-on-Sea, but in truth his music is now anything but DIY. Slick brass constructions like Window Of Your Mind recall Paul Weller's Style Council with added drum'n'bass rhythms, but others sound overly synthetic.

Duckworth has a reputation for being outspoken, but criticism seems to have dented his confidence as he sings about consumerism yet omits I Could Build You a Tower, his scathing attack on western foreign policy. He sounds unsteady talking about his hope of inspiring even one person to "do something amazing".

Yet, Could've Seen It All throws in squawking brass, soul piano, the kitchen sink and sounds angrily terrific. If Duckworth could explore the extremes in his music, he could yet take off.

· At Academy, Oxford, Friday (01865 813 500). Then touring.