The good news is that, after several albums of flirting with rock and overproduction, Joan Armatrading has developed a spare sound once again focusing on her songs and singing, backed by such tasteful accompanists as Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Alan Clark.
The not-so-good news is that, lyrically, Armatrading seems trapped in a romantic cul-de-sac -- when she doesn't have the object of her affections, she longs for him, but when she does have him, she argues with him and suspects him of infidelity, not to mention emotional abuse.
There is a traditional sense of relationships mixed in with hints of the nascent "men just don't get it" flavor of '90s feminism.
One is tempted to say that you can't have it both ways, but then Armatrading's emotional outpourings have always had more to do with contemporaneous honesty than long-term consistency.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Living for You | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:14 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 2 | Did I Make You UpJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:47 | 8 MB | 23 MB |
| 3 | Stronger Love | Joan Armatrading | Play | 05:09 | 11 MB | 0 MB |
| 4 | Words | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:48 | 8 MB | 0 MB |
| 5 | Straight Talk | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:04 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 6 | Watch Your Step | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:59 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 7 | All a Woman NeedsJoan Armatrading | Joan Armatrading | Play | 05:02 | 11 MB | 29 MB |
| 8 | Dark Truths | Joan Armatrading | Play | 02:11 | 5 MB | 0 MB |
| 9 | The Devil I Know | Joan Armatrading | Play | 04:15 | 9 MB | 0 MB |
| 10 | The Shouting Stage | Joan Armatrading | Play | 05:30 | 12 MB | 31 MB |
| 11 | Innocent Request | Joan Armatrading | Play | 03:10 | 7 MB | 0 MB |
| 45 mins | 103 MB | |||||
| 14 mins | 84 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joan Armatrading | Composer, Primary Artist, Producer, Vocals, Vocals (Background) |
| 2 | Guy Barker | Trumpet |
| 3 | Mark Brzezicki | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 4 | Alan Clark | Guest Artist, Keyboards |
| 5 | Graham Dickson | Engineer |
| 6 | Manu Katché | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 7 | Mark Knopfler | Guest Artist, Guitar |
| 8 | Jamie Lane | Drums |
| 9 | Jody Linscott | Percussion |
| 10 | Wesley Magoogan | Saxophone |
| 11 | Dave Mattacks | Drums, Guest Artist |
| 12 | Bob Noble | Keyboards, Strings |
| 13 | Pino Palladino | Bass, Guest Artist |
| 14 | Phil Palmer | Guitar |
| 15 | David Rhodes | Vocals (Background) |
| 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. |