CD: Beverley Knight – Soul UK

Most of the arrangements on this collection of covers of Eighties and early-Nineties UK soul tunes actually have more of a mid-Seventies live band feel to them. This proves to be an excellent way of rescuing the material from the often stultifying effect of programmed drums and cheesy keyboards which has rendered so much music from this period unlistenable to. Largely the approach works very well, although on one or two tracks the end result doesn’t quite measure up to its template.

For example, “Apparently Nothing” by the Young Disciples still sounds cooler and more edgily contemporary in its 1991 manifestation than it does in this workmanlike retread. But to be fair, the gal had set herself a gigantic task here: she’s trying to measure up to people’s treasured memories. I mean, how was her take on “There’s Nothing Like This” ever going to be as sexy and summer-breeze cool as the Omar original? However, there is one track on which she does strike a rich seam of gold. She turns George Michael’s rather neutered and static “One More Try” into a majestic secular hymn evoking shiver-down-the-spine memories of Jimmy Cliff’s “Many Rivers to Cross”. Because of the more stripped-down arrangement, Knight’s voice is the focus here, as it moves in a funky heartbeat from vibrato-heavy vulnerable to ball-breaking authoritative.

But really my advice is to go straight to the accompanying live DVD, as that’s where the real action is. The band sound more bouncily, sinuously alive, and you won’t be able to take your eyes off Knight as she strides around the stage, fizzing with energy and enthusiasm, nailing each song with consummate ease, and repeatedly demonstrating that she’s one of our greatest vocalists, not only in soul but in any genre.

Watch Beverley Knight perform "One More Try" from the bonus DVD