Music Review

03 December 2008 04:59 BST

Alison Moyet: The Turn

W14 Music, out October 15th 2007.

In a nutshell…

Proud, upbeat declaration of independence.

What's it all about?

At just under 40 minutes for ten tracks, the album is well paced and covers a variety of themes and styles - including three songs drawn from the soundtrack of Moyet's 2006 stage play Smaller, which also starred Dawn French.

There's also a definite dignity to The Turn, an elegance perhaps derived from this being Moyet's second album since winning an eight-year legal battle to escape her previous contract with Sony.

Now, after 25 years in the industry, it seems she has finally been able to establish her own style to match a voice which is genuinely distinctive - and the combination of the two makes for a listening experience which is both substantial and yet over all too soon.

Fans and newcomers alike are sure to find something to love among the diverse themes covered, from unrequited love to moments of insightful intimacy.

Who's it by

Alison Moyet's 25-year career has seen her sell more than 20 million records and reached a new high in 2002 with the release of Hometime, her first album of original content after severing her links with Sony.

This was followed in 2004 by an album of cover versions, Voice, which also met with considerable success, reaching the top ten.

Singles success has been harder to come by - Moyet reached the number two spot in 1985 with That Ole Devil Called Love, but the number one position has remained elusive throughout her career.

As an example…

"There are people who you think you're gonna love forever/You're gonna stay together/You should know better." - Can't Say It Like I Mean It

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

The girl's got form - Hometime got a Brit nomination. And The Turn is, quite frankly, pretty good. Add to that the relative success of musicals recently and the stagey aspects could earn a few nominations for this album - while Moyet's vocal talents should carry it to victory.

What the others say

"Delight for me in the fact that I absolutely know these songs float like hope - if you can't, why then you're just plain ugly." - Alison Moyet, Letters Home weblog.

"The Turn is no blistering return to form to sit proudly alongside the real gems of her career - Hoodoo, Raindancing and Alf - but it is satisfying nonetheless." - Chris Long, BBC

So is it any good?

I like it - The Turn balances its moments of introspection well, with a couple of upbeat belters adding highs to bring the listener back out of the lows. And the overall experience is uplifting, too, probably because Moyet has finally been able to sing with the freedom she fought for over an eight-year absence.

If there is a criticism to be made, I suppose it's that The Turn, despite its stage-derived title and content (the three tracks from Smaller and The Man in the Wings), is not really meant to be stage music - Moyet writes on Letters Home, her blog, that she is not a "musical theatre turn".

But a little denial of self does little to bring down the standard of an album which deserves success and undeniably goes a significant way towards reaching it.

9/10

Bob Bardsley

"I cannot imagine who buys Alison Moyet CDs anymore when they all sound exactly the same now. Is she deliberately trying to make people run out of the room screaming? Seriously, she made this exact same record in 2002 and again in 2004. This has to be what music sounds like in Hell." - Delta Dawn Davenport

"Dawn Davenport is in fact an Annie Lennox fan from New York that has targeted Moyet threads for many years. I remember him from old. Good review. Thanks Bob." - Graham Shaw

"It's funny that Delta targets Moyet as she is an Annie Lennox fan. A huge criticism of Annie is that most of her solo stuff sounds the same. Here is the deal - it's called someone's style. Moyet likes singing uplifting soaring melodrama - if you don't like it, don't buy it. The arrangements are timeless and the songs have a theatrical quality because that's what she's been up to recently. I like your review Bob. It's not the most amazing album of her career - but it's darn good and it will go great as the soundtrack for Sunday brunch.:)" - Bowie Ec