Praise & Blameby Tom Jones (Universal/Island)
At 70, Tom Jones is the last of the great British cabaret acts to have risen from working men’s clubs. Cherished for his Welsh roots, it was the raunchy kitsch of his performances that won him fame in Britain and the US. Armies of perspiring women would toss their knickers at this archetypal medallion man as his powerful baritone boomed over a sea of oestrogen.
With a career now spanning almost 50 years, Sir Tom has, like all survivors of fickle pop taste, reinvented himself many times, and with the release of Praise & Blame his long ascent from the ridiculous to the sublime is nearly complete. Guided by rock producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Laura Marling, Ryan Adams), Jones has abandoned his trademark swing for a more intimate arrangement of pitted guitars and drums. But his choice of songs, and the belief and passion with which they are sung, really define Jones’s new direction. Covers of John Lee Hooker, Bob Dylan and Jessie Mae Hemphill blend with traditional blues-gospel standards whose preaching references to death and the afterlife point to the act of a man in full-frontal contrition. Like Johnny Cash before him, whose later work tackled the tragedy and guilt of a long life, Mr Hips, it seems, is ready to meet his maker.
This article originally appeared in the July 2010 edition of Prospect.
