Track Listing

1. One More Time
2. Anytime At All
3. Man In The Wings
4. Can't Say It Like I Mean It
5. It's Not The Thing Henry
6. Fire
7. Sharpest Corner (Hollow)
8. World Without End
9. Home
10. Smaller
11. A Guy Like You

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6650 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 43 minutes

CD Description
'The Turn' is former Yazoo's frontwoman Alison Moyet's seventh studio album. After the fraught and difficult legal battles that marred Moyet's recording career in the nineties andheralded the comeback album 'Hometime', this is her most mature and self assured album to date. Those famous vocals haven't faultered and remain timeless. This album highlights her range and variety of styles from blues to jazz. The album comes as a timely reminder of the gem that is Alison Moyet. Includes the single 'One More Time'.

About the Artist
THE TURN is Alison Moyet's first album of original recordings in five years. It is a work of surprising variety and exceptional depth - drawn together by her remarkable voice - and is destined to take her career to even greater heights.

Never before has Moyet seemed as assured and at ease with her talents as on THE TURN. This surely marks a new chapter in the career of an artist who has captivated us for 25 years, selling in excess of 20 million albums and winning fans as diverse as Antony Hegarty and Tricky.

As soon as that familiar bluesy voice joins the solitary guitar in the opening bars of ONE MORE TIME, the listener knows that they are hearing something unique. And indeed there is an epic quality to this beautifully crafted album that comes in at just under 40 minutes. We make the journey from the soaring orchestration of ONE MORE TIME all the way to the quiet heartbreaking simplicity of SMALLER. Along the way we take in the darkness of FIRE and the longing of THE SHARPEST CORNER (HOLLOW), by way of the punchy guitar pop of IT'S NOT THE THING HENRY and the uplifting HOME (featuring the accordion legend Marcel Azzola).

For all the power in that incredible voice, Moyet has an impressive lightness of touch, deftly drawing out scenes of heartbreak, love and redemption with deceptive ease. As a lyricist, too, Moyet shines on THE TURN. Her maturity allows her to write songs that are heartfelt without slipping into sentimentality. The characters and situations she describes appear simultaneously to be utterly specific (the couple in ONE MORE TIME, the singer in THE MAN IN THE WINGS) yet paradoxically completely universal - we feel she could be writing about our lives and emotions. From 1994 Alison Moyet battled for eight years to be released from her recording contract with Sony so that she could pursue her own artistic vision. In 2002 that struggle was vindicated when she finally released HOMETIME, an accomplished work that achieved Gold status, earned her a BRIT Award nomination and saw her receive huge critical acclaim. It was followed in 2004 by VOICE, an album of covers that entered the chart in the Top Ten and went on to sell quarter of a million copies.

Yet all of that has been a prelude to this moment. THE TURN is a career-defining work, the album that Alison Moyet was born to write and record, and one that shows the artist at the very peak of her powers. With THE TURN Alison Moyet has demonstrated that she is truly one of our greatest artists.

Customer Reviews

One Good Turn
"Perfect frock, exquisite locks and nothing comes to rain on her parade"

It says something that 25 years and seven albums into a career an artist is making their best music yet. But that's exactly what this album represents. Returning with full backing from a major label with a bit of luck the masses will discover what Moyet's fans have known for years.

Opener and the first single to be lifted, One More Time, building from simple acoustic strumming to pop anthem complete with strings and soaring faultless vocals has pop classic stamped all over it.

Anytime At All is another glorious slice of pop with more than a nod to Morrissey.

The Man in the Wings, charmingly old-fashioned, although new, could easily have sat on 2004's covers album Voice.

Can't Say it Like I Mean it will go down well with fans of Hometime and could be another radio hit - an indie rock anthem as good as any of her contemporaries could hope to write.

It's Not the Thing Henry is possibly the only weak track on the album. Reminiscent of 1991's Hoodoo album it just seems to jar with the rest of the album and Moyet's new found chaunteuse style.

Thankfully it's a minor blip because immediately after comes one of the album's standout tracks, inspired by Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Fire.

Another strong track follows, The Sharpest Corner (Hollow) starts with goth overtones, think Siouxsie & the Banshees or The Mission and then builds into a wonderful singalong chorus and flourishing strings.

The final three tracks are all from the hugely successful stage play Moyet performed with Dawn French last year, Smaller. World Without End is a haunting piano driven ballad. Home, where Moyet gets to really have fun vocally, is almost an ode to Edith Piaf and Moyet's own Anglo-French upbringing, complete with accordion and tango-esque rhythm. Album closer Smaller is beautiful and waltz-like.

Overall The Turn seems to borrow everything Moyet's learnt from past albums but with a worldly wise experience that she just couldn't have made 20 years ago. To describe it as mature might mislead you into thinking it's safe; it's not. Producer and long time collaborator Pete Glennister deserves praise for the production on what's possibly the most adventurous album Alison Moyet has made in her career and it fully deserves huge success.

Another page in her diary....
I have been a fan since the beginning with Yazoo....the beautiful girl with the beautiful voice gets better and better and better....

Moyet's Turn on top
I'll admit to approaching this album with trepidation. Virtually every review I had previously read suggests that this is some kind of West End luvvie showtune shriekathon. But several listens in, I have yet to hear any dastardly Streisandisms or Elaine Paige-esque over-emoting. Moyet's success in "Chicago" and the dark play, "Smaller," seems to have overpowered some critics' listening faculties.

The only comparative reference points I can come up with are Morrissey, McAlmont & Butler and, with "The Man In The Wings", Ella Fitzgerald. I may be missing something but I think some reviews are based entirely on the press releases.

"The Turn" somehow manages to distil the achievements of Moyet's three previous original albums ("Hoodoo", "Essex" and the splendid "Hometime"). Guitars and strings feature richly in the arrangements, all of which highlight that gloriously potent voice. In many ways, "The Turn" is the ultimate Moyet showcase. Producer/songwriting partner, Pete Glenister, seems to have unearthed yet more facets of her vocal abilities. The songwriting is superb. Morrissey would kill for "One More Time" or "Anytime At All". The three songs from the play, "Smaller", fit seamlessly - "World Without End" being a heartbreaking highlight. Not a hint of greasepaint anywhere.

The blurb calls this a career-defining album. For once, the hype seems justified. If Moyet were a rehab-bound miniskirted slip of a girl, gems like "One More Time", "Anytime At All", "The Man In The Wings" and "The Sharpest Corner (Hollow)" would not only be heavily playlisted, but dripping in awards. The album's bonus track ("A Guy Like You") should have the Scissor Sisters looking nervously over their shoulders.

Buy "The Turn" if you are a fan of brilliantly-crafted, beautifully performed songs. If you're looking for a re-tread of Lloyd-Webber's singalong catalogue, however, you might like to look elsewhere.