JOAN ARMATRADING
LIVE AT ASYLUM CHAPEL
BMG
★★★★
Recorded during last year’s global livestream show marking half a century in the business, Live At Asylum Chapel captures the then-70-year-old Joan Armatrading rattling through her songbook with the fire and vim of a woman half her age, her rich contralto as powerful as ever. It’s not just an exercise in nostalgia, either: cuts from her most recent album, Consequences, sound every bit as vital as pioneering early classics like Drop The Pilot and Me Myself I. A lyric book, The Weakness In Me, is also out from Faber.