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Amazon.co.uk Review
On the surface, yes, this is a blues album; mostly, though, it's a Joan Armatrading album--which means she'll follow blues forms and conceits wherever she damn well pleases. On "Liza," she takes the "Mannish Boy" groove across the tracks for a pick-up on the wrong side of town; on "There Ain't a Girl Alive (Who Likes to Look in the Mirror Like You Do)," she dresses down a rival; on "Play the Blues," she simply undresses herself to a juicy, contemporary soul groove; and on "Mama Papa," the album's finest and funkiest moment, she recalls her youth on the island of St. Kitts in lines that flash with truth: "Seven people in one room/No heat/One wage/And bills to pay." It's also a guitar album: her blues chops, especially on the sprawling closer "Something's Gotta Blow," would give Robert Cray a serious run. Fiery as her playing can be, her blues riffs are mostly economical, concise, with evocative spaces between the notes. The same can't be said for the overall production values. Armatrading is still enamored with slick gimmicks: doubling and tripling her vocals and adding layers of echo on top of that, and synth pads and distortion that feel more bombastic than bright. Into the Blues is far from a return to form, but it still sends a tough, funky message. --Roy Kasten

Description

Joan Armatrading won a 2008 Grammy Nomination for Into the Blue in the "Best Contemporary Blues Album" category.

14 Reviews 5 star:  (11) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:  (1) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:  (1)           Average Customer Review (14 customer reviews)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   34 of 35 people found the following review helpful: Her best yet? A serious return to form..DIVINE!, 24 Mar 2007 By  Ms. Maeve B. Tuomey "music hound" (london) - See all my reviews    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!!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   17 of 17 people found the following review helpful: Her best yet? A serious return to form..DIVINE!, 18 Mar 2007 By  Ms. Maeve B. Tuomey "music hound" (london) - See all my reviews    This review is from: Into the Blues (Audio CD) 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!!  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this)   8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: The Joan album we have waited for for years!, 20 Jul 2007 By  Phil Robb "Phil" (Leamington Spa) - See all my reviews 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