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Product Details:
Audio CD Release Date:
May 01, 2007
Studio:
429 Records
Number Of Discs:
1
Average Customer Rating:
based on 22 reviews
Description:
Into the Blues is the album that Joan Armatrading was always meant to write. Immediately you can tell how much she enjoys playing the blues as her guitar belts out these 13 hits.
Track Listing:
1.
A Woman in Love
2.
Play the Blues
3.
Into the Blues
4.
Liza
5.
Secular Songs
6.
My Baby's Gone
7.
D.N.A.
8.
Baby Blue Eyes
9.
Deep Down
10.
There Ain't a Girl Alive
11.
Empty Highway
12.
Mama Papa
13.
Something's Gotta Blow
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Review:
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Everybody say this that...This That! Nov 14, 2008 Last year Joan rolled into Poughkeepsie and reduced the crowd into a bunch of screaming savages. It was an amazing show. Thanks Joan!
INTO THE BLUES - this is a great CD.. As usual Joan mixes it up, but a thread of the blues runs throughout. Joan broadens the definition of blues and takes us on a journey through various styles, voices and places......she plays everything but the drums! Very nice!
A Woman in Love - A great blues/pop song with an uptempo beat, an understated blues guitar, rapid fire piano playing, and a synth solo for good measure. By the end of the song Joan is singing she "never thought this would happen to me". Maybe she is singing about having a number one blues album!
Play the Blues - A nice bass driven tune with some fancy guitar.
Into the Blues - Love this song! Great guitar solo! Joan manages to mention hip-hop and baroque and give props to the mighty Mud, all in the same song.
Liza - "I see you looking at me!" This bluesy number struts over to the other side of town. One of the bluesier numbers on the CD.
Secular Songs - Joan takes us to church. Beautiful pop/gospel hymn feel to this song and a wall of Joans make a great choir.
My Baby's Gone - a fun upbeat bluesy number featuring Joan on the slide guitar.
DNA - a nice electronica/dance/psychadelic/blues tune. Not sure about the BGs falsetto but the last 2 minutes of Joan and her guitar singing together are brilliant.
Baby Blues Eyes - Joan packs her mandolin and harmonica and heads on down to the Everglades for a backyard dance. A nice folksy bluesy trip.
Deep Down - This repititious song may take a few listens but it will grow on you.
Aint a Girl Alive - Joan and the drummer man let loose on this number that could easily be about Paris Hilton The drummer crashes his way through while Joan scratches out some guitar solos reminiscent of "The Key" album.
Empty Highway - Urban Cowgirl Joan is left downhearted and standing in the rain. Nice westerny blues vibe.
Mama Papa - a funky finger snapper about Joan's life from St Kitts to Birmingham.
Something's Gotta Blow - Joan echoes her way on a claustrophobic train ride. Some great guitar playing and she also tickles the ivories quite nicely.
It would have been cool if the itunes only tune "Alright" was on the CD.
Check it out!
Congrats on running the NY marathon!
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
The reclusive lady sings the blues !Apr 27, 2008 The hugely influential and pioneering British singer-songwriter, is back with a brand new studio CD.
The reclusive legend tries her hand at the blues and proves quite a dab hand at it.
She basically plays everything here bar the drums and manages to inject everything with a sense of drive and passion. As always, her silky-smooth voice is the real star.
Joan's new album is the latest in a long line of fabulous releases dating back to her wonderfully successful breakthrough albums in the late 70s and early 80s such as Show Some Emotion, To the Limit and Me Myself I .
She remains an utterly compelling writer and performer of unique warmth.
She cites "Into The Blues" as her best work yet.
"I've wanted to make an album that truly reflected me and I think this does. I love the blues and while each song is very different there's a cohesive thread that runs throughout".
Her 19th album is a celebration the blues, which she describes as "the bedrock of modern music".
Her rich, mellow vocal suits the blues, as does her accomplished guitar playing.
She really enjoys playing all those well-oiled blues riffs on her trusty electric guitar to ornament her compositions.
One of them, "Baby Blue Eyes", features some impressive acoustic strumming, which adds a more earthy texture.
Always bold and unpredictable, Joan Armatrading has come to Muddy Waters relatively late, but better late than never.
This is an eclectic mix of blues-inspired songs that should please her loyal fans.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A mature masterpiece of a mature womanJan 01, 2008 I fell in love with Joan in the mid-70's after hearing her Back To the Night album (vinyl issued 1975; so sad it is currently unavailable on CD) and her 3rd album called simply Joan Armatrading (1976). I was extremely charmed by her vocal (smooth & husky & strong & natural, capable of unbelievable finesses, which were, however, very functional and devoid of any signs of exhibitionism). She had an outstanding technique of tone forming which varied with every syllable she sang. The other point was she was a fantastic song-write of beautiful melodies, performed with great feeling, only occassionally bluesy. Her lyrics has been also delightful, sensitively marking the intimate spaces between two people. I came back to JA in the early 80's (Me, Myself, I album, 1980) and then again, I somewhat forgot about her (being principally a rock fan). Then it took me another 15 years to get astonished for the third time, by means of her fantastic comeback with the album What's Inside (1995). I thought this was to be her last masterpiece ... and I did not expect she might ever level this.
It is now her curent album that shook me again. It preserves all the above mentioned attributes of JA's art, but, in addition, it indeed extends them. (I cannot recall many in the showbiz world that would be artistically growing and maturing being aged 57 - the majority can at best level previous efforts, but never go beyond). Joan's vocal darkened a bit, maybe as a consequence of the repertoire she performs. Although more than one half of the new songs are principally bluesy things (as indicated by the title of the album), it is incredible how Joan's creativity made the whole album so variable in mood, tempo, instrumentations. From the gloomy balads (the bluesy Empty Highway) to solidly rocking pieces (Deep Down, held on one single chord; There Ain't a Girl Alive); from her inventive classical song-writing (A Woman In Love; Baby Blues Eyes) to the classical electric blues things (My Baby's Gone; Liza). You may notice traces of funky, reggae, boogie, also gospel (Secular Songs). Another point is the instrumentation - as always, first-class. We used to hear many well-known studio musicians with her in the past - now Joan performes everything on her own with the exception of drums. There are wondeful guitar solos (some even aggressively rocking - There Ain't a Girl Alive), if not to mention the numerous tiny blues miracles she produces on her guitar. On one of the tracks (Baby Blue Eyes), her guitar playing even reminds of old Velvet Underground. The bass lines are perfect as well. Even the mouth harp appears (simple, but powerful). No backing vocals - just perfect overdubbs of her own. And last but not least - the lyrics. Simply you trust her, the charming lady, so open without any pretending in love affairs (..when you sing the blues, I'll take off my clothes for you). Surprisigly, even autobiographic (Mama and Papa) and social themes from an immigrant milieu appear, a feature I was not used to with Joan. The closing, slowly gradating bluesy song (Something's Gotta Blow) with the socially oriented lyrics is really overwhelming. Amen. We've heard the trinity of words, singing and music of JA, a mature woman who has created an extremely mature piece of art.
2 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Girl AliveOct 13, 2007 Joan Armatrading's "Into the Blues" is a great set with many highlights. Of my four favorites is the rocking blues-inflected "My Baby's Gone (Come Back Baby)" with a great chorus and Joan's voice insistent, "Don't you know I can't live without you?" "Deep Down" is an amazing rock conflagration with Joan's band blowing out the repetitive lyric. She sets drummer Miles Bould free and mixes the drums up high that makes this track a cousin to some of the best of Cream. Joan follows this with another full-tilt boogie, "There Ain't A Girl Alive" that throbs passionately with Joan's blazing guitar as she spitefully wails, "Yea you like to go to the shopping mall; They got mirrors wall to wall; You like to be on the center stage; You can see adulation on a thousand faces." "Mama Papa" is a blues boogie with some tasty acoustic slide guitar on a track that sounds like a swamp cousin of Tony Joe White. Other songs like the title track, "Baby Blue Eyes" and "Secular Songs" also shine. This is an amazing CD. It will probably be on a few "Best of 2007" lists come year-end. Bravo!
6 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Put me into the blues.Oct 01, 2007 I love Joan Armatrading and have all of her albums. This one, however, I'll be giving away. I was really looking forward to hearing Joan get into the blues and bought this album without hearing it. Mistaaaaake! There's one song in this selection that could be described as 'blues-ey" - the rest I don't quite know how to describe other than to say, this album ain't blues. I found most of the tracks agitating. My advice is to listen before you buy. It saddens me to have to give Joan a bad review, but hey, one dodgy album out of so many isn't bad!
based on 22 reviews
