Albums to watch

Praise & Blame

Tom Jones

Praise & Blame

Album of cover versions from the Welsh singer produced by Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon)

ADM rating[?]

7.3

Label
Universal / Island
UK Release date
26/07/2010
  1. 10.0 |   The Independent

    Overall, it's an extraordinary achievement
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  2. 8.2 |   PopMatters

    Jones has demonstrated with a new album that it’s never too late in the game to take an inspiring artistic step forward
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  3. 8.0 |   The Guardian

    At last Jones the artist is the match of Jones the entertainer
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  4. 8.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    The record is simply a great set of gospel-infused standards that Jones has expertly made his own with his style, charisma and Jones-iness
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  5. 8.0 |   State

    While Johnny Cash’s final albums had an increasingly fatalistic tone, this is very much the sound of a man in the later stages of life having a ball. Gimmick or not, all power to him
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  6. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    What shines through everything here is the sincerity of the artist; this is no cheap gimmick to refresh his marketability
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  7. 8.0 |   NME

    Print edition only

  8. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    Apparently, someone at Jones's record label has made rude noises about this album. He needs a hearing aid
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  9. 8.0 |   The Fly

    Just like Johnny Cash before him, it could be enough to warrant a revival of cool, no easy feat for a 70 year-old man used to being hit with underwear
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  10. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    If you've never even considered owning a Tom Jones record before, give Praise & Blame a try. It may well surprise you
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  11. 8.0 |   Daily Telegraph

    With its loose, spontaneous sound, and the all-pervasive sense of artistic rebirth, the album even has something of his old pal Elvis Presley’s ’68 Comeback about it. Either way, it’s a revelation
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  12. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Few singers with a popular background are going to emerge with an album as remarkable as this during 2010. Print edition only

  13. 7.0 |   The Observer

    Aficionados tend to prefer revamped legends whispery and contrite, rather than vigorous and finger-clicking... It is also very hard to excise the twinkle from Jones's eye; he just can't resist hamming it up
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  14. 6.0 |   Q

    As ever, Jones's strength and weakness is that voice of his. Print edition only

  15. 6.0 |   Uncut

    The 70-year-old's pipes remain a fearsome piece of artillery. Print edition only

  16. 6.0 |   The Scotsman

    Though not the most subtle of vocal stylists, he has a good old stab at the less-is-more territory inhabited so utterly by Cash in the American Recordings series he made with Rick Rubin
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  17. 6.0 |   Scotland on Sunday

    It sometimes smacks of a sepia-tinted quickie wedding chapel rather than the gnarled wood of the pews in his local church in Pontypridd, but his honest intentions prevail
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  18. 6.0 |   Independent on Sunday

    Its sound is rootsy in a Willie Nelson-meets-White Stripes vein, and Jones' septuagenar-ian rasp suits it well
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  19. 5.0 |   BBC

    It’s like hearing war stories from wizened veterans: you should, by any moral compass, be impressed and attentive, but the guilty, undeniable truth is... you’re a little bored
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Tom Jones: Praise & Blame

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. What Good Am I? £0.99
  • 2. Lord Help £0.99
  • 3. Did Trouble Me £0.99
  • 4. Strange Things £0.99
  • 5. Burning Hell £0.99
  • 6. If I Give My Soul £0.99
  • 7. Don't Knock £0.99
  • 8. Nobody's Fault But Mine £0.99
  • 9. Didn't It Rain £0.99
  • 10. Ain't No Grave £0.99
  • 11. Run On £0.99
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