03 July 2009
The TimesJon Bungey
In 2005 a group of youngsters were rather hopefully lumped together by the record industry as "the new jazz generation". We all know what happened to Katie Melua, Amy Winehouse and Jamie Cullum. But what about Gwyneth Herbert?
With her photogenic looks and a voice that could run the gamut from vulnerability to soul-belting, Universal was confident that it could create a smooth-jazz diva. Herbert was less convinced, and walked away after one overproduced album to pursue a more personal path as a highly individual singer-songwriter.
All the Ghosts is the second album in that journey and shows increasingly confident writing. So Worn Out is classic Bowie-like pop; on My Mini and Me she delivers a belting blues tribute to her old car; My Narrow Man is a sweetly wacky love song ("looks better in my fishnets than me").
The airy, acoustic arrangements are imaginative, full of shifting tempos and textures. Occasionally it all gets a little too clever -Jane into a Beauty Queen strains for comic effect. The stand-out though, comes late, on track nine, her gorgeous jazz ballad Some Days I Forget. This is the most traditional, yet loveliest, song here.
You can understand why Herbert might want to escape from retro-jazz typecasting but the awkward fact is that in this field she is very good indeed.