Caroline Sullivan
NOT CD OFTHEWEEK
Tom Jones has spun out his “comeback”, which began with a gut-busting version of It’s Not Unusual on Jonathan Ross’s trendy Last Resort show in early 1987, for years, but has never quite overcome the novelty- oldster tag. People half his age flock to see him at Glastonbury, other artists queue to work with him – Reload (Gut) is based on exactly this premise – but when it comes to buying his records, the public back off. It seems acceptable to cherish him at arm’s length as a hirsute symbol of Swinging London, but no one wants to deepen the commitment by taking his CDs home, apart from the hits compilations.
How frustrating for Jones, who still has plenty of lead in his pencil, yet can only watch from the sidelines as his young indie friends score hit after effortless hit. If he teamed up with some of them on an album of covers, he must have reasoned, perhaps the magic would rub off. Hence a cast including Robbie Williams, Cerys Matthews, Stereophonics and just about everyone who felt up to the challenge of taking on the Welsh narwhal.
Intriguing in theory, but not in practice. For all Tom’s pretensions to being down with the kids, he’s not down with their music. So he does the only thing he knows: charges in and sings like a buffalo.
It takes a strong voice to stand up to The Voice, and most of his partners simply aren’t up to it. If you pair a vocalist of great power but little interpretational skill with subtler singers and songs, he’ll ride roughshod over them every time. Appropriate, then, that Reload is credited to Tom Jones rather than Various Artists. Still, it’s a hit on the charts, and who can really begrudge him?