Can it really be 20 years since The Communards' disco anthem Don't Leave me This Way topped the charts? Celebrating 25 years in music, this limited edition 34-track double album from Sarah Jane Morris embraces everything from intimate acoustic sessions ( Nick Drake's haunting River Man) and live performances (Move on Up) to hip dancefloor remixes (It's Jesus I Love), huge stadium-sized arrangements (the anthemic Missing you and the outer-spacious Sunny) and the aforementioned number one hit. Elsewhere, there's the shimmering luminescence of Mercy, Mercy Me and a number of co-written songs including the memorably titled A Horse Named Janis Joplin. Heard continuously over a single sitting, this really is quite a mind blowing compilation, revelatory even.
The singer’s range - both in terms of register and emotional nuance - and the unusually large textural palette of her voice combine to striking effect. It does leave you with the following question. Now a big pop star in Italy, does the singer’s refusal to be corralled by genre and her absolute commitment to ploughing her own artistic furrow mean that she is, quite possibly one of the UK's great jazz singers manqué?
The singer’s range - both in terms of register and emotional nuance - and the unusually large textural palette of her voice combine to striking effect. It does leave you with the following question. Now a big pop star in Italy, does the singer’s refusal to be corralled by genre and her absolute commitment to ploughing her own artistic furrow mean that she is, quite possibly one of the UK's great jazz singers manqué?