Iconic Welsh singer Tom Jones has come
out with 41st studio album and his fourth covers album. He has
worked with producer Ethan Johns his first in six years. It debuted at number
one in the United Kingdom, making Jones the
oldest male at age 81 to earn a number-one UK album, and charted within the top
25 in five other countries. He is known for having one of the most recognizable
voices with some of the most iconic songs like “It’s not unusual” and “She’s a lady” to name some. At age 81 his booming soulful voice really shines through
on these covers but some of the music used behind his vocals does not match the
tone of the songs with weird sounds/fake music or his vocals like “The windmills of your mind”.
The best cover he does is Bob Dylan’s “One more cup of coffee” as he really makes the song sound better by his singing it instead. There are songs that do rock out like “Talking reality blues”, “Lazarus man” and “No hole in my head” but he talks on one and the other has an odd eastern-psychedelic sound to it. The songs that show his powerful voice are “I wouldn’t crumble with you if you fall” and “I’m growing old”. While there are nice quiet songs like “I wouldn’t lie”, “This is the sea” an acoustic song and “O’l mother earth” one of his piano based songs. Plus “Samson and Delilah” sound like a bluesy song with biblical undertones. The other song “Popstar” is a very weird sounding song with piano where he sounds like he’s rapping, and it could be a lot more sped up to rock out but they missed an opportunity there.
The thing that I do not understand is who wants to listen to one song that is more than nine minutes, another is more than seven minutes, one that is more than six minutes, and two tracks are more than five minutes. The only good thing is if thing you’re a die-hard fan of his you will love this album because of his outstanding singing voice, but if you’re a casual fan you will yawn at how long the songs/the album is and not understand why he made another covers album.
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