359. Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading (1976)
















Track Listing

1. Down To Zero
2. Help Yourself
3. Water With The Wine
4. Love And Affection
5. Save Me
6. Join The Boys
7. People
8. Somebody Who Loves You
9. Like Fire
10. Tall In The Saddle

Review

Finally something really good. I really liked this album, Joan Armatrading is one of the first black female singer-songwriters and you can really tell how influential she was on the ones to come. This album sounds a bit like Ani Di Franco but mainly like Tracy Chapman, who really is a spiritual successor to Armatrading. Armatrading is never as political as Chapman but the sound similarities are certainly more than a coincidence.

This is a beautiful singer-songwriter album very different from all the other ones on the list, it does sound a bit ahead of its time, maybe due to its similarities to Tracy Chapman, this sounds more like her contemporary form the late 80's early 90's than mid 70's.

So finally after this long desert of quality we had Jorge Ben yesterday which I liked and today Armatrading which I kind of loved. Maybe it has something to do with being backed up by former members of Fairport Convention, but it is a beautiful album, both lyrically, in terms of performance and just the arrangements. It is quiet and heartfelt while still retaining some fire. Get it.

Track Highlights

1. Love And Affection
2. Down To Zero
3. Same Me
4. Help Yourself

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Joan Armatrading moved with her family to Birmingham, England in 1958. Her first job was working at Rabone Chesterman (makers of fine engineering tools), in Hockley, Birmingham. She was sacked from this job because she insisted in bringing her guitar to work, and playing during tea breaks. In the early 1970s, she moved to London to perform in a repertory production of Hair.

Love and Affection: