As a confused adolescent, coming to terms with my sexuality, I often sought comfort in the songs of Joan Armatrading. At the time, Armatrading’s self-titled disc (her third album) was all over the radio, and songs such as ‘Love And Affection’ and ‘Down To Zero’ were my personal anthems. As far as I knew, Armatrading was a straight woman, but I felt a strong connection to her words, music and distinctive vocals nevertheless.
Years later, as an openly gay college student in Boston in the early 1980s, I attended my first Joan Armatrading concert and was amazed by the number of gay men and lesbians in the audience. Other queer people had heard something in her songs and were there to show their support. As long as I live, I will never forget the way the spectators responded when she sang ‘Willow.’ It was the first time I had ever been to a concert where the singer started the song, and less than halfway through it allowed her devoted fans to sing the rest of the song, word for word, note for note. The sight of the beaming Armatrading and the sound of the people around me singing the song are something that will always remain with me.
For years, Armatrading’s domestically released 1983 hits collection, Track Record, was the essential set as far as I was concerned. In addition to ‘Heaven’ and ‘Frustration,’ the two wonderful songs available only on that compilation, the remaining songs were vital Armatrading, making all other anthologies (even those with more songs) unnecessary.
That has changed with the domestic release of Love And Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics—1975-1983 (A&M). The 43 songs, spread out over two CDs, are all thoughtful selections, from the expected standards such as the five I previously mentioned above, and ‘Cool Blue Stole My Heart,’ ‘Show Some Emotion,’ ‘Me Myself I,’ ‘All The Way From America,’ ‘I’m Lucky,’ ‘When I Get It Right,’ ‘The Weakness In Me’ (perhaps Armatrading’s greatest accomplishment), ‘(I Love It When You) Call Me Names,’ and ‘Drop The Pilot.’ The album also includes all four songs from the 1979 How Cruel EP, including the title track and ‘Rosie.’ Additionally, there are live cuts and soundtrack contribution.
If I have one complaint (but of course I do) it is the exclusion of the song ‘Eating The Bear’ (from Walk Under Ladders) which is a concert favorite and deserves a place on any Armatrading anthology.
Of course, the release of this mostly comprehensive collection raises another issue. What about the many good songs on Armatrading’s five post-1983 A&M albums Secret Secrets, Sleight of Hand, The Shouting Stage, Hearts and Flowers, and Square The Circle? Can we expect to see reissues of those out-of-print CDs? Or will there be a separate ‘classics’ compilation covering the years 1985-1992?
While this situation is being hashed out, I suggest that you take a listen to Armatrading’s delightful new CD Lovers Speak (Denon), her first new studio album since 1995’s RCA release What’s Inside? From the charming piano and drum intro on the catchy opening title track (with the chorus, ‘I wanna learn the language of love/I wanna learn how to flirt/I wanna hear someone call out my name/And wipe away all the hurt’) to the aural pleasure of ‘Physical Pain’ to the exquisite vocal and keyboard number ‘In These Times’ to the simmering ‘Waiting’ and the bouncy ‘Prove Yourself,’ to mention a few, Lovers Speak is Armatrading’s long-awaited return to form.
This is an album’s worth of songs, including the rhythmic ‘Love Bug,’ ‘Tender Trap,’ and ‘You Made Your Bed,’ that her many fans will have memorized long before they see her live in concert the next time she comes through town.