Consequences (LP)

Consequences, Joan Armatrading's new album, is one of her most intimate and direct albums yet and one that wears its conscience and its heart on its sleeve. The album ably illustrates the fact that Joan Armatrading never likes to repeat herself. It is a very different follow up to 2018's UK's Top 30 hit album Not Too Far Away.

Of course, the change of musical pace will come as no surprise to Joan's many legions of world-wide fans since she has always been a pioneer in what she does - ever since the release of her first album in 1972 when her then record company, by their own admission, had little idea of how to present her, being so outside the norm.

Whether she's playing a blinding electric guitar solo that would put many of the recognised 'Guitar Heroes' in the shade or focusing on specific genres like jazz or blues, Joan has always gone where the muse takes her with no predictability attached. Repetition isn't in her lexicon, even when composing the music for The Tempest and as demonstrated on the recently screened documentary about her career, 'Me, Myself, I'.

With her heartfelt, direct, and melodic trademark vocal style and lyrics that tell it exactly how it is and a strong rhythmic flow throughout, Consequences is an album of some surprises for sure but couched in a passionate intensity that benefits from listening to it straight through from start to finish. A complete aural experience and an uncompromising tour de force that engages and gets better with every listen.