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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Fairplay |
| 2. Southern Freeez |
| 3. Mama Used To Say |
| 4. Say I'm Your Number One |
| 5. When You Gonna Learn |
| 6. Apparently Nothin' |
| 7. There's Nothing Like This |
| 8. Don't Be A Fool |
| 9. Always and Forever |
| 10. Round and Around |
| 11. Cuddly Toy |
| 12. Damn |
| 13. One More Try |
Product Description
Review
The covers album is a noble tradition: a chance for an artist to pay tribute to their roots, to avoid writing any new material, and to present their listeners with songs that everyone knows they like already, because they've heard them. From Bowie to George Michael, John Legend to Paul Weller, a covers set is a chance to tell people where you're coming from and, often, to pause for breath while you work out where you're going to next.
Beverly Knight is a brilliant soul singer, who grew up at a time when black British music wasn't as united as it is in these days of grime riding high in the pop charts. High quality dance and soulful pop acts struggled to have more than one hit single, and very few - Rod Temperton's Heatwave and Jazzie B's Soul II Soul are notable exceptions - were able to maintain albums success and international fame.
Both those acts are referred to here on Soul UK. 'Soul' in this insistence is a fairly broad church, referring to the (generally brilliant) soul pop made in Britain over the last 30 years. As a testament to the often-overlooked music made in the days when RnB still meant Big Joe Turner, not Beyoncé, Soul UK is remarkably effective. The songs covered here are wide-ranging, from the Prince-like rock pop of Roachford's Cuddly Toy to Heatwave's gorgeous ballad Always and Forever. Knight's memory and taste are impeccable - it's nothing but a joy to hear Junior Giscombe's Mama Used to Say or Princess' Say I'm Your Number One again.
If there is a criticism of this album - which is certainly a record you'd be enormously hard-pressed to dislike - it's that Knight doesn't always find it easy to impose her personality on these well-known tracks. On the great Apparently Nothin' - and despite an excellent rap break - she doesn't add anything particular to the Young Disciples original. But when the arrangements and the vocals are given a touch of freshness, as in the Motown'ed-up cover of Cuddly Toy, Knight's version breathes and her versatility is given room to roam. More of that (and a cover of Linx's awesome Intuition) would have been nice here, but this is a good record.
--David Quantick
Find more music at the BBC This link will take you off Amazon in a new window
CD Description
Beverley Knight presents her own versions of 13 classic UK soul tracks, including songs by Soul II Soul, Jamiroquai, Omar, Young Disciples, Roachford, George Michael, Junior and more.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sweet Soul Magic,
By
This review is from: Soul UK (Audio CD)
Beverley Knight is a National Treasure. 'Soul UK' is a covers albumbut this need not trouble us. Ms Knight has a helluva voice and the kind of secure yet relaxed performance style which carries the project through with convincing, energetic and charismatic elan. Remember Freez? Listen to her take on their 1981 hit 'Southern Freez' if you need convincing. The spirit of the original is wholly intact but Ms Knight's affectionate reinvention gives it new blood and a joyous pulse. No less so her rendition of Junior's 'Mamma Used To Say', propelled along by some hot backing vocals and even hotter horns. Pure magic. For soul look no further than the slick arrangement of Stock, Aitken and Waterman's (for Princess) 'Say I'm Your Number One' (one of SAW's very finest creations). Ms Knight is incandescent! The song is too! Rod Temperton's gorgeous 'Always and Forever' (Heatwave - 1977) is another of the album's solid gold highlights. Ms Knight's measured vibrato and glorious vocal arabesques are truly magnificent. She makes it sound easy. It isn't! Final track 'One More Try' (George Michael - 1988) is simply sublime. A consummate musician; a great singer; a very fine recording. One of her best. Highly Recommended.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A little conventional, but her voices shines throughout this covers' record.,
This review is from: Soul UK (Audio CD)
Celebrating the best of Soul in the UK, the front woman of Soul this side of the Atlantic Beverley Knight has compiled a record dedicated to the UK Soul movement.With other genres of music getting high praise over the course of 40 years like Rock, Techno, Hip Hop and now Dubstep getting the attention of the pop charts, Beverley wants to address the importance of Soul music and how it has affected the likes of British artists. Spanning across the late 70s until the early 90s, the songs touch a certain generation as sentimental, the rest of us get to here some classics again from yesteryear that were perhaps forgotten. Some powerful ballads show off her voice but her capabilities don't stop there. Tracks like "Mama Used To Say" originally by Junior in 1982 and "Apparently Nothin'" (featuring Glen Scott & Roots Manuva) by Young Disciples make sure this record isn't just one style of Soul but it covers the whole spectrum of the genre. There are some interesting choices of material on "Soul UK" in which some people might not link to two artists together. For instance, the last song on the album called "One More Try" is a track by none other than George Michael. A great artist but you might not necessarily put Beverley in the same breath. Though with a little change in instruments and a different vibe in place, Beverley creates a great re-mastered version of the George Michael classic and deserves its place on the record for sure. Though you are treated to a hit upon hit collection, some fans might feel cheated that there are no original songs by the singer/songwriter. After her previous record "100%" was released in 2009, her fans might have thought Beverley wanted to contribute the same way in her future projects rather than just stating the point for one record. We know Beverly is a talented musician and can conjure up a song by little walks in life and it would have been nice to see it expressed yet again. However, the message is clear throughout the record on what Beverley wants to accomplish, to remind people about the strong history the country has with Soul music and it's not just the Americans who know how to create good Soul music. With this in mind, you would have to say that the album will stretch the knowledge of the UK public to discover new British Soul that they may or may not have heard of before. Artists such as Freeez, Princess, Loose Ends, Rod Temperton, Jaki Graham, Andrew Roachford and Lewis Taylor have essentially been given a new life. Dean Woodhouse
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The queen of UK SOUL,
By
This review is from: Soul UK (Audio CD)
In my humble opinion Beverley is without doubt one of the most important artists of the last ten years,and this covers album contains more examples of her craft;mainly songs from the 8os and 90s redone 'THE KNIGHT WAY'.There's a lovely version of 'Always and Forever' and anyone who covers Lewis Taylor should be applauded(Damn);another fave is 'Say I'm You're No.1'.I LOVE BEVERLEY'S VOICE. Four stars though cos it's not original material which we all want really;great dvd bundled with the cd shows Beverley's stage craft WE LOVE YOU BEVERLEY.
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