Sarah Jane Morris has had many roles over the years – Communards hit-maker, jazz crooner, Brechtian big band diva – the common thread being an octave-leaping voice brimming with drama and passion. Here she hits a career high with an album dedicated to Africa, though the continent’s musical accents are subtle, present mainly in the rolling guitar lines of co-writer Tony Rémy. Morris’s vocals run the gamut – fiery on Hugh Masekela’s Coal Train, joyous on a tribute to Ugandan gay activist David Kato, dark on Emmylou Harris’s Deeper Well, reflective on the title cut, the whole becoming a transcendent mix of cold fury and compassion.
