Joan Armatrading’s revered songbook will be celebrated with Thursday’s (3) publication by Faber of The Weakness In Me: Selected Lyrics. In the UK — where she has spent most of her life — she has placed hit singles on the charts from time to time and played the Royal Albert Hall. years is a long time,” says the artist, “but for me it’s flown by and I still get the same thrill from writing songs as when I started.

Whilst some of her contemporaries have long since waded into more temperament waters, Armatrading still has a glimmer of what novelist Jim Harrison once described as a sense of echo. The rest of the track paints itself as an ode to personal resurrection but there’s a brittleness there.Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. Having interviewed her several times now, I would also take issue with the notion that she is uptight and guarded.

An album of the live show, which featured new songs (such as “Better Life” and “Consequences” from her 2021 album, also titled Consequences) alongside career favorites, will be released on November 18. Strong rhythmic acoustic guitar playing and melodic electric solos help to make her the consummate musician. When her debut album, Whatever’s For Us, came out in 1972, there was really no one else like Armatrading on the scene.That last song doesn’t sound like anything else on Consequences — it’s more downbeat and sparsely arranged — but it’s an interesting and effective way to end the record.