Album: Alison Moyet

Hometime, Sanctuary

With her profile heightened by a run in the musical Chicago, Alison Moyet has chosen the right time to undertake the substantial career refurbishment signified by Hometime. It's undoubtedly her most compelling set of performances since her 1984 solo debut Alf, and may be her best album, period. Mostly co-written by Moyet with the guitarist Pete Glenister, the material pushes her talent into new and unusual areas, from the sombre break-up song "You Don't Have to Go", with its lugubrious church-organ setting, to the creepy harpsichord and synth tones of the title track, which depicts Alf adrift in a fog of longing: "Let him be just for me/ Let him be poetry/Wait for me patiently." Wisely avoiding the soul-diva approach that would usually be forced upon a singer of her ability – the only full-blown torch song here is the glum "If You Don't Come Back to Me" – she has opted to explore more rewarding terrain, such as "Yesterday's Flame", which opens the album with a voodoo swamp groove akin to Dr John's Gris Gris, a sort of bewitched, stoned shuffle across a cavernous chasm of reverb. Sometimes, she strays into strange territory indeed: the single "Should I Feel That It's Over", for instance, sounds uncannily like a Coldplay out-take, with Moyet's vocal elision lent grandeur by a dramatic string arrangement, while the enigmatic "Mary Don't Keep Me Waiting", with its backward guitars and childlike backing vocals, comes across like a Sixties psychedelic fairy tale. Simpler but more effective by far is "Ski" – surely a single in waiting – whose sparse, D'Angelo-style nu-soul groove plays directly to Moyet's strengths.