Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Her best yet? A serious return to form..DIVINE!, 24 Mar 2007
As a long standing Joan Armatrading fan, I've diligently bought every album, hoping, but slightly disappointed. I haven't been blown away since the early days of To The Limit or 'Joan Armatrading'. THIS IS THE ONE! Edgy, raw, impassioned, this is exactly where I think Joan should be. It's rugged blues but it's so much more aswell. She's in the best voice she's been and that's her greatest strength. All self penned songs, it sounds like her most honest - 'Mama Papa' is her 'Nutbush City Limits' (a sparse Ben Harper meets Bobbie Gentry classic). It's also very uplifting; despite a sprinkling of her yearning ballads, protest songs - she's obviously in a good place. This is RL Burnside blues not Robert Cray - lowdown-minimum polish. I've always thought Joan was one of the most under-rated British talents - this is her swansong and she deserves huge success from it. If you want to hear Joan Armatrading without the lush 80's sheen that dogged some of her more recent output, this will repay your faith 10 times over. I love it, love it, love it!!
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Joan album we have waited for for years!, 20 Jul 2007
Joan Armatrading recording a complete Blues album - who'd have thought? We've heard plenty of her dabblings into the Blues genre with songs such as Friends, Tall In The Saddle and the probably completely forgotten Sometimes I Don't Wanna Go Home, along with countless other songs, but never an entire album dedicated to the Blues. This is a truly amazing album, from start to finish. Here we go track by track:
1. A woman in Love - More of a pop song with blues guitar attached but a good opener and lead single form the album.
2. Play The Blues - again more poppy but some great blues guitar and a great line with "Baby, when you sing the Blues I take all my clothes off for you".
3. Into The Blues - superb tiltle track and probably the best line on the album, "Dance may be real cool and country's just for fools. Baroque is just for the old, for the tired and restless souls, lost in the darkness". Sheer bliss!
4. Liza - A strange, earthy blues number that takes a long while to get used to, but I now love it, especially the up-tempo bit in the middle. A classic!
5. Secular Songs - Probably the one song from this album that would have easily slotted into any one of her last 4 or 5 albums. More Gospel than Blues, maybe giving vent to Joan's spirtuality? But great all the same.
6. My Baby's Gone - Pure BB King type full on blues - Bring it on!!
7. D.N.A - Another Pop/Blues marriage that she does so well!
8. Baby Blue Eyes - My early favourite and nothing has changed (except for being overtaken by track 11). I love the mandolin on this, the only track which is exclusively accoustic.
9. Deep Down - errr.....hated this for ages, quite like it now but don't quite get the joke, if indeed there is one, except for the inclusion of lyrics on the song sheet for this track which, I have to say, is simply hilarious! Sorry Joan, just not sure of this one at all.
10. There Ain't A Girl Alive - By far the best blues guitar on the album is in this one. A great full on blues/rock song, Joan proving she has balls, if you'll pardon the expression.
11. Empty Highway - This made me cry! It could have been written about me and my ex and has subsequently become my absolute favourite for this reason alone. Oh, and the fact that it is just a beautiful blues number of course.
12. Mama Papa - "I was born on an Island, St. Kitts in a little bitty town. Had a Mama and Papa, four brothers and a sister". A rare and indepth insight into the real Joan and such a great track too!
13. Something's Gotta Blow - If you have ever travelled on any line on the London Tube in rush hour, then you will get the point of this song. Written about trying to get home via the Northern line, this song is powerful, manic, moving, disturbing and brilliant rolled into one. The acapello vocals work so well and really do capture the sheer frustration and claustrophobia it is so easy to feel in this situation. Superb!
As I said, a truly amazing album and if you only ever want to have one blues album in your cd collection, you won't go far wrong in making it this one!
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Her best yet? A serious return to form..DIVINE!, 17 Mar 2007
As a long standing Joan Armatrading fan, I've diligently bought every album, hoping, but slightly disappointed. I haven't been blown away since the early days of 'To The Limit' or 'Joan Armatrading'. THIS IS THE ONE! Edgy, raw, impassioned, this is exactly where I think Joan should be. It's rugged blues but it's so much more aswell...sometimes delicate, sometimes angry..a little bit folky, a little bit new wave..ironically, despite being most closely rooted in blues, this is probably the most contemporary and vital she's sounded in 30 years. She's in the best voice she's been and that's her greatest strength. All self penned songs, it sounds like her most honest - 'Mama Papa' is her 'Nutbush City Limits' (a sparse Ben Harper meets Bobbie Gentry classic). It's also very uplifting; despite a sprinkling of her yearning ballads, protest songs - she's obviously in a good place. This is RL Burnside blues not Robert Cray - lowdown-minimum polish. I've always thought Joan was one of the most under-rated British talents - this is her swansong and she deserves huge success from it. If you want to hear Joan Armatrading without the lush 80's sheen that dogged some of her more recent output, this will repay your faith 10 times over. I love it, loveit, love it!!
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![Into the Blues [Deluxe Edition]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41gGA%2B64uDL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
