For much of her 12th new studio album, Joan Armatrading sounds like she is ending a bad relationship, but by the last two songs she sounds like she's beginning a good one.
Still, she finds herself pledging herself to someone she worries may not have the same commitment she does.
Thus, perhaps the album's signal song (and Armatrading's first UK chart single in five years) is "More Than One Kind Of Love," in which she touts the value of friendship over romance: "Good friendships seldom die," she sings, and we are painfully aware that, especially in Armatrading's world, even good love affairs seldom live.
Still, this is less a revelation than an incremental development in the artist's work, and Hearts And Flowers doesn't contain any songs that rank among her best.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | More Than One Kind of LoveJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 05:38 | 12 MB | 31 MB |
| 2 | Hearts and FlowersJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:43 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 3 | Promise LandJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:05 | 9 MB | 25 MB |
| 4 | Someone's in the BackgroundJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:01 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Can't Let GoJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:14 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | FreeJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:25 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | Something in the Air TonightJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:36 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 8 | AlwaysJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 02:00 | 4 MB | 8 MB |
| 9 | Good TimesJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:25 | 10 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | The Power of DreamsJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:13 | 7 MB | 16 MB |
| 39 mins | 90 MB | |||||
| 14 mins | 82 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joan Armatrading | Arranger, Composer, Primary Artist, Producer |
| 2 | Graham Dickson | Engineer |
| 3 | Richard Haughton | Photography |
| 4 | Richard Houghton | Photography |
| 5 | Ted Jensen | Mastering |
| 6 | Tom Lord-Alge | Mixing |
| 7 | Pino Palladino | Bass |
| 8 | Jeremy Pearce | Art Direction |
| 9 | Micajah Ryan | Assistant, Assistant Engineer |
| 10 | Stylorouge | Art Direction, Design |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |