The Turn

As a result, her last two outings, 2002's Hometime and 2004's Voice, were, to put it bluntly, a little bit rubbish. Overblown and underwritten, they were enough to make you wonder why one of the finest British voices of the 80s and 90s had bothered returning.

But then, her mind has been on other things, chiefly treading the boards, where she's taken the Moyet-made role of Mama Morton in Chicago and then stretched herself opposite Dawn French in Smaller.

It's that production that makes the sturdy base on which The Turn is built. Three of the songs - 'World Without End', 'Home' and 'Smaller' - were written for the play, and that theatrical infusion spreads across the other seven offerings.

That such an input would send her back towards the direction of her brilliant best is hardly a surprise. After all, her finest moments have always had a melodramatic edge - think of the power of 'This House' or kitchen-sink drama of 'Ordinary Girl' - and while there is nothing here that hits those heights, the heartbreak of 'One More Time' and the off-kilter splendour of 'The Sharpest Corner (Hollow)' are worthy additions to her canon.

Yet the obvious intent to write for the stage that surges out of every song means that they also all stick to a mid-tempo performance beat, ripe for a little acting when they're sung live, and that robs the album of real light and shade, though the furious "It's Not The Thing Henry" does shake the bars as best as it can.

The Turn is no blistering return to form to sit proudly alongside the real gems of her career - Hoodoo, Raindancing and Alf - but it is satisfying nonetheless, and it's a welcome reminder that Alison Moyet still has one of the most emotive and intoxicating British voices ever. --Chris Long

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Never before has Moyet seemed as assured and at ease with her talents as on THE TURN. This surely marks a new chapter in the career of an artist who has captivated us for 25 years, selling in excess of 20 million albums and winning fans as diverse as Antony Hegarty and Tricky.

As soon as that familiar bluesy voice joins the solitary guitar in the opening bars of ONE MORE TIME, the listener knows that they are hearing something unique. And indeed there is an epic quality to this beautifully crafted album that comes in at just under 40 minutes. We make the journey from the soaring orchestration of ONE MORE TIME all the way to the quiet heartbreaking simplicity of SMALLER. Along the way we take in the darkness of FIRE and the longing of THE SHARPEST CORNER (HOLLOW), by way of the punchy guitar pop of IT'S NOT THE THING HENRY and the uplifting HOME (featuring the accordion legend Marcel Azzola).

For all the power in that incredible voice, Moyet has an impressive lightness of touch, deftly drawing out scenes of heartbreak, love and redemption with deceptive ease. As a lyricist, too, Moyet shines on THE TURN. Her maturity allows her to write songs that are heartfelt without slipping into sentimentality. The characters and situations she describes appear simultaneously to be utterly specific (the couple in ONE MORE TIME, the singer in THE MAN IN THE WINGS) yet paradoxically completely universal - we feel she could be writing about our lives and emotions. From 1994 Alison Moyet battled for eight years to be released from her recording contract with Sony so that she could pursue her own artistic vision. In 2002 that struggle was vindicated when she finally released HOMETIME, an accomplished work that achieved Gold status, earned her a BRIT Award nomination and saw her receive huge critical acclaim. It was followed in 2004 by VOICE, an album of covers that entered the chart in the Top Ten and went on to sell quarter of a million copies.

Yet all of that has been a prelude to this moment. THE TURN is a career-defining work, the album that Alison Moyet was born to write and record, and one that shows the artist at the very peak of her powers. With THE TURN Alison Moyet has demonstrated that she is truly one of our greatest artists.