The Observer
Sarah Jane Morris, After All These Years
Britain's most underrated diva shows off her vocal range.
Neil Spencer Sunday November 12, 2006
If anyone understands anthems it's flame-haired, mahogany-voiced Morris. With the Communards she rebooted Thelma Houston's disco hymn 'Don't Leave Me This Way' to a global number one in 1986, and scored a BBC ban for her lesbian-kissed 'Me and Mrs Jones' three years later. This 2-CD retrospective offers a bossa version of the latter (with Marc Ribot on guitar), but is mainly a showcase of Morris's talents as jazz diva, as she explores Nick Drake, Chet Baker and Brecht with tenderness and grit. Her 'Mad Woman Blues', a tale of tragic cross-dressing, adds a shiver of modern pathos.