Artist: Jones, Tom
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2008
Length: 54.49
Rating: 3/5
Few names in the world of show biz can match the recognition and success of the vocal giant who goes by the name of Tom Jones. Over his long career the man has managed to slip well over 100 million albums into people’s homes, and almost every one of those shipments came wrapped in a hefty helping of evergreen material, mostly grown out of the legacy of r & b, soul and, to a degree, American blues. It seems Tom Jones has nothing in common with the headless spin of the modern music world, but the guy doesn’t let trifles like that bother him. At not exactly tender years, the old boy still likes to fire off every round in the magazine. The wiry Welshman, in the style of the most seasoned seducer, keeps stubbornly softening hearts young and old alike. His latest contribution to an already vast catalog of male seduction tricks, endless blabbering and other related gabbing is called 24 Hours.
24 Hours is an utterly strange brew, one where the traces of the musical road Tom Jones has walked so far are clearly visible. The album is mostly ruled by electronic rhythms, programmed to make room for trendy, skin-bashing beats. 24 Hours certainly loses some of its naturalness this way, which is surely one of the album’s bigger minuses. Grandpa Jones clearly didn’t want to leave anything to chance, but luckily the elder statesman of the music circus always stays far away from any self-destructive copying of the synth-soaked trends that rule the airwaves these days, and the lack of substance that comes with them. Jones makes up for the missing organic feel with refined vocal execution and brilliantly arranged material, where colorful horn arrangements are always welcome and plentiful. With a nicely chosen set of songs that keeps swinging between atmospheric soul and quality pop meandering, a constant feeling of electricity and trembling anticipation of the next emotional turn is maintained, typical of the singer’s vocal delivery wrapped in the finest velvet. Sweat mingles here with other bodily fluids, in a way that defies the sensibilities of most, and what ties it all together is an intensity next to which Josef Fritzl comes off as a first-rate amateur!
What never stops shocking, and no doubt strikes fear into the bones of the young generation of inseminators, is the nonchalance of Tom Jones, with which the 68-year-old keeps convincing us on 24 Hours of the flawless functioning of his own props, whose purpose is firmly anchored in the domain of reproductive processes. Sex remains Jones’s basic rhetorical figure, an effective prop that, in the company of a dazzling vocal range, instantly grows into a deadly expressive weapon of astonishing power, tangibility and reach. Tom’s vocal interpretation radiates a vitality that will leave you with nothing to do but nod in silence. Make no mistake, 24 Hours brings no timeless motifs, nor material you could pin onto the wreath of Jones’s greatest hits without hesitation. Still, songs like the unburdening soul jaunt If He Should Ever Leave You, the rhythmic merry-go-round In Style And Rhythm or, say, the teasing mischief-maker Sugar Daddy show enough varied shades of quality to lift 24 Hours, without a fight, well above the average of modern pop peddling.
Line-up
Tom Jones: vocals
Sean Gould: guitar
Paul Farr: guitar
Alex Bonatanti: bass
Steve Shebby: bass
John Ellis: keyboards
Ben Levels: keyboards
Darren Lewis: piano
Nathan Allen: drums
Joey Hollander: drums
David Smith: trumpet
Bill Churchville: trumpet
Noel Langley: trumpet
John Wriggle: trombone
Sam Sadigursky: tenor saxophone
Emma Ovens: viola
Ian Burdge: cello
Pete Whitfield: string arrangements, violin
Production
Mark Woodward & Steve Greenberg
Track list
1. I’m Alive
2. If He Should Ever Leave You
3. We Got Love
4. Feels Like Music
5. Give A Little Love
6. The Road
7. In Style And Rhythm
8. Sugar Daddy
9. Season
10. Never
11. The Hitter
12. Seen That Face
13. 24 Hours
