You could hardly call an album that neared the top of the charts, stayed in them for ten months, and sold three million copies a flop, but when it's following two straight #1's, and the artist's last album of new material stayed in the charts twice as long and sold twice as many copies, you can call it a disappointment. Maybe it was just that this was the fourth or fifth, if you count the covers album Timeless (The Classics) time around for Bolton's successful formula, but The One Thing sounded pro forma even for him. That didn't keep "Said I Loved You...But I Lied" from becoming a massive hit on soft-rock radio, but none of the other tunes really connected with his usually adoring public. It would not be wise, however, to count out a pop star as persistent as Michael Bolton.