CD: Lisa Stansfield - Seven | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Lisa Stansfield - Seven
CD: Lisa Stansfield - Seven
The Rochdale soulstress and sometime rave diva returns
For those of a certain vintage, Lisa Stansfield's voice is woven into the fabric of memory.
Of course, she was a middle-of-the-road soul singer before that, and continued to be afterwards, descending to a nadir of over-polished, over-mannered Eighties winebar swankiness with her last album, the 2004 Trevor Horn-produced The Moment. Which is why it's gratifying that her comeback contains a lot of the gutsiest and rawest hollering that she's done in a long time. I have a sneaking suspicion that she's heard a bit of Amy Winehouse and Adele in the meantime and gone, “I'll show these whippersnappers a thing or two." For whatever reason she is in very fine voice indeed here.
The production is still way over-slick, and the playing likewise – we're in Simply Red territory here – but the songwriting is on point and there's something exuberant about the whole thing. From the opening groover “Can't Dance” to the title track's Sixties heartbreak ballad, she growls, purrs and leaps registers with aplomb, and particularly on the Sade-style slinky R&B of “The Crown” and “Love Can” it'd take quite some effort of snobbery not to get drawn in. A happy surprise.
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Comments
Mr Joe. I must say that your
Is that Lisa on the cover??