‘The First Lady of British Soul Reaches New Heights’
‘It’s what you wish more soul singers would do. Rather than spend millions on extraneous polish and hipster remixes, Beverley Knight took herself and her music back to the source: holed-up in Nashville with veterans of Al Green and Elvis Presley sessions,she let the music flow. The recording, overseen by Mark Nevers (who also produced Candi Staton’s most recent LP), took all of five days.The result is an album that spits heartfelt fire from every pore, freeing Knight’s Aretha-sized tubes to belt out some of her best songs yet. Not everything works – a cover of ‘Time is On My Side‘ is hackneyed – but on ‘The Queen Of Starting Over‘, the Muscle Shoals-rooted ‘Every Time You See Me Smile‘ ( one of the three tracks featuring Ronnie wood on guitar) and ‘Saviour‘ with it’s strutting funk,she sounds like a singer finally finding her true voice.’
Angus Batey * * * *
Filed under: Album, Music City Soul, Review
