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Beverley Knight - Voice - The Best Of (Parlophone)
UK release date: 20 March 2006
3 stars
Beverley Knight - Voice - The Best Of

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track listing

1. Shoulda Woulda Coulda
2. Keep This Fire Burning
3. Come As You Are
4. Piece Of My Heart
5. Gold
6. Made It Back
7. Get Up
8. Flavour Of The Old Skool
9. Sista Sista
10. Not Too Late For Love
11. Greatest Day
12. Sweet Thing
13. Angels
14. Who's Gonna Save Your Soul
A well-deserved best of, that's for sure, yet the nagging feeling remains that Beverley Knight may not yet have been allowed to realise her full potential, either by record buyers or her label. It's difficult to pin a finger on this exactly, but the direction of her most recent single offers a few clues.

Piece Of My Heart is, for sure, a cobweb-blasting cover, and the Knight vocal chords are as raw and emotive as ever. And yet it smacks of celebrity fame academy, a feeling enhanced by Knight's recent cosying up to Nicky Campbell for the BBC's recent shocker Just The Two Of Us. Seems her PR has been working overtime.

A listen to the earlier records confirms the old cliché about the first ones being the best. They have a club edge to them, a rhythmic verve and sharpness to the production that gets smoothed off all too easily for the radio friendly models we have now.

Made It Back is a cracker, borrowing from Chic in both versions here, its urban mix superior to the 'Good Times' single edit. Greatest Day remains a blissfully happy piece of music. Flavour Of The Old School, the breakthrough hit, has a sweet innocence with close harmonies that found their way onto many a 1990s street soul compilation.

Regardless of quality, Knight's voice carries every song here, and that includes even an unnecessary live cover of Angels. She's surely one of the few British talents who can really belt out a song but not sound forced and technically calculated - she could even get her something out of a page of Auto Trader!

Which makes it all the more shameful about the shift towards the middle of the road and the reliance on covers. Shoulda Woulda Coulda points the way - a good song, effortlessly delivered, but unmistakably M25 rather than Twice as Nice. Keep This Fire Burning is an uplifting blend of layered vocals and a resourceful chorus, while Come As You Are hints at a rockier direction. All impressive, but the club edge has gone.

Still, let's not make it personal, for Knight is a hugely talented, driven lady with one of the best voices around, and while you may skip a song or two here it won't be on her account. It's just to be hoped this end of chapter one retrospective sees her taking stock and swinging out of reality TV, back towards the dancefloor.

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