Reviews of Tom's Music, Sir Tom In the News, What's New, Pussycat?
Here’s where all the critical reviews of Tom’s music — the new stuff and, if we can find any — older recordings.
More Reviews Of “Praise and Blame”
Saturday, July 31st, 2010
A few things crossed TJI’s computer screen today that will not be posted. Among them was a really rude story from a trashy UK daily about Sir Tom’s management. It was correct in saying that Sir Tom’s son/manager Mark Woodward has done some really good things for his dad’s career. But the rest was trashy speculation that has, sadly, become typical of these rags. Remember, please don’t believe everything you read…..Also, the stalker fan chimed in with a silly comment that, naturally, didn’t get posted. I am noting that in the hope that those fans who will be in Las Vegas will decline to interact with her when she is here. She doesn’t deserve consideration from anyone.
The Word On: Praise and Blame, Tom Jones
The Friday, 30 July 2010 edition of The Independent did a rundown of some reviews of Praise and Blame
“He’s done more than shallowly recasting himself as a gospel-and-blues interpreter. He’s reached deep and tapped into the real stuff… a stark, soul-probing study in imminent mortality.” - avclub.com
“This new direction shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it somehow does. If you’ve never even considered owning a Tom Jones record before, give Praise & Blame a try. It may well surprise you.” —musicomh.com
“He’s managed to make himself something highly unusual for a man at this stage of his career: unclassifiable. Unpredictable. He’s the Lady Gaga of Elvis impersonators, at once of the moment and eternal, disposable and persistently present. And, to address that record executive’s four question marks, Tom Jones is no joke.” – npr.org
We missed two of the full reviews. The very complimentary review from National Public Radio here.
The other two are:
Tom Jones – Praise & Blame (Island) UK release date: 26 July 2010
by John Murphy /musicomh.com
Let’s call it ‘doing a Johnny Cash’. Artist of a certain age hooks up with a ‘name’ producer to record an album of stripped down cover versions, leading to both critical acclaim and a whole new audience.
For the rest of this review and the other one, please click here to
Just in time for his 70th birthday, that’s what Tom Jones has decided to do, hooking up with Ethan Johns (who has worked with the likes of Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon and Laura Marling) to record an album of blues and gospel songs.
The inevitable parallel is that of Cash and Rick Rubin’s staggering American Recordings albums, but where Cash’s life of heartbreak, tragedy and drug abuse meant those songs were imbued with a sense of gravitas, Wales’ favourite son has always been regarded as something of a kitsch figure who’s probably most famous for having an awful lot of underwear thrown at him.
So, expect a few cynical eyebrows to be raised. Yet, against the odds, Praise & Blame more or less works brilliantly – it’s certainly a much more convincing sound for ‘Jones The Voice’ than 24 Hours, his rather ill-advised collaboration with Future Cut, was.
Johns’ masterstroke is to bathe the album in a ‘classic rock’ style, and allow Jones’ famous voice to let rip. At times, it’s all a bit too reverential and portentous, but at its best, Praise & Blame is unexpectedly both exhilarating and touching.
Burning Hell, the John Lee Hooker classic, is simply extraordinary – Jones doing vocal battle against some blistering blues guitar to visceral effect. It’s more exciting than any septuagenerian has any right to sound. Lord Help is in a similarly barnstorming style, with Jones sounding like he’s having the time of his life.
The more restrained moments work equally well. Did Trouble Me has a lovely bluegrass feel, reminiscent of Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ recent work, while What Good Am I pulls off the rare trick of improving a Bob Dylan original. It’s the sound of a man looking back on his life, and there’s a poignancy and melancholy that hangs heavy, to terrific effect.
Admittedly, there are moments that slip into Later… with Jools Holland territory – Strange Things even features a boogie-woogie piano – and the gospel stylings of Didn’t It Rain comes across as a tad pedestrian. Inevitably, given the source material, there’s a lot of lyrics about God, religion and spirituality, which may put some off, but it never pushes any views into the listener’s face.
The Cash comparison crops up at the end too, with a vibrant version of Run On, the traditional folk song popularised in recent years by Moby and covered by Cash on American Recordings V as God’s Gonna Cut You Down.
For a man who’s tackled many different styles in his career, this new direction shouldn’t come as a surprise, but it somehow does. If you’ve never even considered owning a Tom Jones record before, give Praise & Blame a try. It may well surprise you.
Praise & Blame — B+
by Jason Albert/July 27, 2010/avclub.com:
From a distance, Tom Jones’ new Praise & Blame seems like just another Johnny Cash-style comeback by an aging star. And in a sense, it is. But Jones is a pop artist, and as such, he has every right to latch onto whatever trend he likes. With Praise & Blame, however, he’s done more than shallowly recasting himself as a gospel-and-blues interpreter. He’s reached deep and tapped into the real stuff.
Jones’ leap is less radical than it looks. He has been doing credible R&B covers—forget his kitschy rendition of Prince’s Kiss—since the ’60s, and his voice has always held a magisterial authority. In fact, the friction between his booming pipes and his often-lightweight material has long been his trademark. But Praise & Blame features no such disconnect. Jones’ thunderous baritone, eroded to perfection, is wedded to spectral folk hymns and skeletal gospel stompers—most of which are harrowingly fixated on death, hellfire, and Jesus. The disc’s production and arrangements are impeccably sympathetic. Haunting and rawboned, the backing music sweeps Jones closer to Nick Cave than to Johnny Cash, though like Cash’s American Recordings series, Praise & Blame is a stark, soul-probing study in imminent mortality. But amid its grim-yet-joyous ecstasy, Jones gives no hint that his reinvention is anything less than a legitimate bid for salvation—artistic, personal, and even eternal.
The Irish website The State offers this review by Phil Udell on Friday, 30 July 2010:
Tom Jones – Praise & Blame
If anyone knows a thing or two about a gimmick, it’s Tom Jones. Here after all is a man who went from club singer to chart topper, from Vegas megastar to the Glastonbury main stage with apparent ease. Now, however, we are faced with the real Tom Jones, no gimmicks. Or are there? The leaked email from new record company Island that handily appeared last month painted the singer as an unlikely outsider and there can’t have been anyone involved with Praise & Blame who isn’t aware what a revitalising effect such a back to basics has had on many careers. Gone, then, is the hair dye, the fake tan and the ironic covers, replaced by craggy black and white photography and an album of gospel and spiritual songs.
What his traditional audience is going to make of it is anyone’s guess but for the rest of us, this is a real joy. For too many years now, Jones the artist has been overshadowed by the other aspects of his personality but here he is asked to carry the show on his talent alone. It’s a task he’s more than up to. With production handled sympathetically by Ethan Jones, Praise & Blame is a towering piece of work. For all the talk of ‘the voice’ over the years it’s still a surprise to hear Jones sing this well and with such empathy for the source material. We know he can raw but the emotion he shows on the likes of Dylan’s What Could Am I? and Nobody’s Fault But Mine is a complete surprise. He even dabbles with a bit of rock ‘n’ roll to break things up. Crucially, while Johnny Cash’s final albums had an increasingly fatalistic tone, this is very much the sound of a man in the later stages of life having a ball. Gimmick or not, all power to him.
July 31st, 2010 at 4:28 am
I just love reading the good reviews – am hoping my CD arrives this coming week – should have no problem clearing customs – thanks for all the great work you are doing