Affirmation (Dotmusic)

"What is soul?" asked Ben E King in 1967. Sampling him in a song of the same name, the Stereo MC's revisited the topic 22 years later. And it's still a valid question today, if the reception given in some quarters to Wolverhampton singer Beverley Knight's fourth album is anything to go by. An editorial in the venerable and respected UK magazine Echoes suggested that this album saw Knight leaving the orbit of soul music. The title, on behalf of its genre, effectively bade farewell – with no hard feelings – to a woman it felt was clearly on her way to being a pop star.

Yet as the boundaries between soul, pop, hip hop and R&B continue to be eroded – where do we fit Beyonce Knowles? What about Christina and Britney? The Neptunes: that's hip hop, right? – one important consideration is being overlooked. Without winning, emotive, compelling combinations of lyric, melody and rhythm, genre considerations and adherence to any set of musical rules are irrelevant. And, whatever else it may be, Knight's new record is testament to her belief in, and considerable ability to wield, the power of a good song.

"Come As You Are", her Top 10 single, has been described as a rock song, and compared (not always favourably) to Robbie Williams' "Let Me Entertain You". This is surely solely because it's partly the work of Williams' former co-writer, Guy Chambers: in reality, the track is the sort of hair-down, gospel-fuelled stomp that King, Wilson Pickett or Solomon Burke would have loved to have had a manful grapple with in their pomp. It's a superb opening to a truly great LP.

That this is Knight's best album to date is no surprise – she has allied the vocal talent she's always had with the confidence that the success of 2001's "Who I Am" brought. But, more, this is a collection of very fine songs given sure-footed, decisive expression. Even when it's at its slightest – "Supasonic" is basically Prince's "Cream" and Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac" thrown together with abandon; "Keep This Fire Burning", the only track Knight didn't help write, tries a bit too hard to capture the Beyonce/Blige vote – this is still a record that burns and sparkles. At its best, as on the almost perfect "Never Too Late For Love" or the subtly beautiful "First Time", co-written with Chris Martin, it's peerless.

Chambers co-wrote another three tracks, including the utterly beautiful "No One Ever Loves In Vain", the album's key track, which finds Knight, voice breaking, tears almost audible, striving to cope with the death of her best friend. "Till I See Ya" covers the same ground, and "Salvador" is a cleverly understated look at the effects of AIDS, but "Affirmation" is a record about the power to overcome, the durability of the spirit; a record for the good times, the bad times, and the times in between.

Soul? You bet.

9/10

Dotmusic

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