Sarah-Jane Morris
Album: Bloody Rain
Label: Fallen Angel
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.sarahjanemorris.co.uk

Best known from her time with hi-NRG 80s agit-poppers The Communards, Sarah-Jane Morris has developed as a solo singer of great renown and prodigious skill. She has a quarter of a century of solo releases behind her, she's seen plenty and sung more, yet it doesn't feel like it's overstating a point to say all of it has been building to this album.

Clearly deeply personal, it places themes of corruption, prejudice, love and friendship in an unapologetically African context. Not so much a love letter to a continent, as a plea for salvation, she painstakingly chronicles difficult subject matters - none more so than honour killings (No Beyonce) and child soldiering (Comfort They Have None) - in deeply human terms, invariably coupled with a mighty hook and killer melody.

The record is propelled to other worldly levels by an incredible team of collaborators than include James Brown's right hand man Pee Wee Ellis, the intricate and articulate vocals of the Soweto Gospel Choir, Courtney Pine's supple Afro-British playing and Senegalese kora virtuoso Seckou Keita.

In lesser hands the cover of Dylan's I Shall Be Released would be a huge mistake, but in the middle of a record as committed and partial as this, Sarah-Jane pulls it off helped in no small way by the stunning performance in duet from Nigerian singer songwriter Keziah Jones. Elsewhere, Brazilian percussionist Adriano Adewale makes a telling contribution to the dizzying Wild Flowers.

But for all the undoubtedly heartfelt and justifiable anger and outrage chronicled in its grooves, Bloody Rain remains resolutely upbeat and optimistic - defiantly so in fact. On My Way To You is breathy and beautiful, For a Friend honest and uncomplicated, while Across the Desert To Love is a hymn to freedom that could be applied anywhere in the world that people are in crisis.

And on top of all of that is Sarah-Jane Morris' incredible voice. Of course she channels the past, but not just her hit-making history, this is a voice that knows it belongs in a music continuum as old as humankind. Charming, powerful, almost always surprising, this is very good indeed.

Nick Churchill
www.thegranvillechambers.co.uk