Tanita Tikaram has a new album?

I don't think there will ever be a time when I do not love Tanita Tikaram even though I only remember her every few years

"Twist In My Sobriety" came up on my shuffle a minute ago. Other ones I liked long ago were "Elephant" and "It All Came Back Today". Did this 2005 album come out?

At her best, Thea Gilmore has picked up her mantle a bit.

Yeah - the album "Sentimental" came out. I didn't get it; what I heard of it sounded like a Nick Lowe-produced Sweet Keeper. I like Nick Lowe fine, but don't want sonic imprints I recognize on my Tanita records. Still, fans who didn't like the Cappucino Songs (I'm not one of them) thought Sentimental was a return to form.

GUYS THERE IS AN AMAZING EDIT OF "TWIST IN MY SOBRIETY" COMING UP SOON.

just trust, it has been blowing my mind all day.

Interest piqued!

I await a post.

the one on discobelle?

wonder what she's up to

Tikaram is preparing what will be her eighth studio album, and in July 2010, she flew to Los Angeles, California, United States to commence recording.

she is playing live in London at Union Chapel on 4 October. First show in 10 years. I would really really like to be there, it's not going to happen but man oh man

Eighth album, just chugging along still. I like that, a lot.

man I'm listening to Ancient Heart - Tanita what do I gotta do to make you tour down this way - your music has meant a fuck of a lot to me over the years - if you're reading this thread & you know about underrated aerosmith bootlegs that have your crew call my crew you know what I mean - you are the best

If you can make that happen, uabiho, I'll give you a smooch.

man actually

I could actually ask some people to make some calls or something 'cause her music has seriously been there for me in some dark hours

I listened to Ancient Heart yesterday after this revive - such a weird mix of genres, not sure how I would describe it to someone else - "Twist in my Sobriety" is still a badass jam, did she ever release anything similar?

"Twist" remains a wonderful anomaly in her catalogue, actually.

yeah I know - that's what drew me to Ancient Heart all these years ago and I was bit puzzled to hear country tunes when I was expecting gothy gravitas.

Each of her albums has a different hue, but it's mostly the same jazz/folk hybrid with occasional leans toward a more pop sound (often with horns). I like them all, but I listen to them so infrequently now that I couldn't tell you which songs I like are on which albums (except "I Love the Heaven's Solo" from Everybody's Angel, a great great song).

Cool, I'd never seen this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOxl-9rEVTU

I mostly remember Tanita Tikaram because she was such a straw man for the uk press. Like, the worst thing a band or singer could do was be compared to her. The hate seemed disproportionate.

I know the UK press loved her initially, or else "Twist" never would've even made it the US. I guess they turned on her rapidly?

seems like an odd straw (wo)man - was she - god forbid - considered too tasteful?

it's that she made a big splash with her first London gigs at the Mean Fiddler - I think the hype on her was just high enough in the wake of those to generate lots of haters

you know what Ancient Heart kinda feels like is a Nick Drake Only Born Later kinda record, to me. Nick Drake's a great lyricist obv while Tanita's lyrics are kinda "if you love her, you end up loving her lyrics" deal but the vibe & the impulses seem similar

New one out August 27th!

xpost (long time)

there's a bunch of girls with guitars that are influenced by Nick Drake, but the guy was a great lyricist, guitar player and singer. And had an excellent understanding of music apart from that.

TT wrote great lyrics, but blimey her performance was scary: her eyes would go up to the top of her skull like she was abs petrified!

Presumably, she doesn't do that now..

her new single is FANTASTIC.

Can't wait to check that out!

Here is the video for said single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r15nw1rgHNY

Love this version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXdpWni7L1M

the opening track on the new one is 1) pretty dated in a weird '01 style way and 2) FUCKING RAD.

you know just because I know everybody demanded it I'm gonna break down the Tanita Tikaram discography for yall so you know where this new one stands in the catalog

Ancient Heart - the debut; huge worldwide success, two hits in the US ("Twist in My Sobriety" and "From the Cathedral") plus I think a couple more in England (Didn't "Good Tradition" chart?). VH1 could not get enough of its introspective midtempo style and neither could I; like a heavily medicated Tori Amos

The Sweet Keeper - A masterpiece, but also my gateway to TT, and an album that played such an essential role in a certain period of my life that I can't really get too clear a view of it. Largely the same band & sound as Ancient Heart but the tempos vary more widely and the songs are more ambitious - more grown-up in a good way. Even more inward-looking and increasingly cryptic - are these lyrics sometimes quite bad or are they just in a weird personal language that can only allow you halfway in? Very emotional record that seems to be about staving off loss a lot of the time, but loss of what? Youth? Innocence? Never clear.

Everybody's Angel

Abruptly, the wheels come off. She'll never have a bad lead-off track but there's not much left besides the atmosphere after that. Lyrics get pretty confusing ("I Love the Heaven's Solo," "Hot Pork Sandwiches"). How does such a great album get followed by such a directionless mess?

Eleven Kinds of Loneliness

A little better, but still pretty lost. "You Make the Whole World Cry" - again, the lead-off - is real good, and "Out on the Town" is an unexpected return to playful-but-sad form, but the feeling here is that the well is fairly dry.

Lovers in the City

Shockingly good; probably her best album. Established-personality-trying-to-cope-with-changes-in-pop-style stuff is in effect here but everything works, there's only one song on it I don't like. That song is called "The Yodelling Song." Vocally she's found a great balance between the lightness that made the best songs on The Sweet Keeper so special and the muted desperation of something like "Out on the Town." Just a wonderful album from somebody who was a little famous for a minute and is now nearly invisible - the process is audible; this is somebody who spent a year or two on big stages, but who's she singing to now?

The Cappuccino Songs

Three years passed and I no longer lived where there was a record store and I couldn't find this online for less than twenty dollars and in 1998 I did not have twenty dollars to spare, and I was in a pretty different place, and I never got it. Never heard it! I listened to samples on Amazon and it sounded really good and someday I will get it and go completely nuts about it I bet.

Sentimental

Seven years passed, and I did get this one, because I ran across it somewhere, and it was kind of a mess. I had high hopes but it was just unmemorable.

Can't Go Back

The new one; the first three songs are so good that a longstanding TTFC member starts to get pretty heated up, but then the fourth song is called "Rock and Roll," usually a bad sign. In the second half of the album there's a number of songs in duet; I don't get it. But the lead single is great, and "All Things to You" and "Make the Day" are also present the surprised-you-with-sadness calling card that makes her special, and she's always known how to close an album and "If the World Should Want for Love" doesn't disappoint there, so even if there's a dropoff after those opening three, four great songs in a field of ten where the other six are pleasant enough from an artist nearly forgotten by the world: well, I'll take it, anyway, and I'll be pretty damn grateful about it too

I can't thank you enough for this!

"Twist in My Sobriety" brought me up short today.

I adore it.

An unexpected cover, given the source. (But the reason for its existence is a understandable though sad one: it's dedicated to his lifelong partner. He died earlier this year from cancer and loved this song dearly.)

https://leaetherstrip.bandcamp.com/album/twist-in-my-sobriety-tanita-tikaram-cover-version

Wow, love it, and it makes me want to listen to more Leather Strip and Tanita Tikaram.

New box set from Cherry Red Records of the 1988-1995 albums, with bonus tracks.

The Liza Minnelli version of “Twist in My Sobriety” has been the one in my head for 35 years, to the point I totally forgot Tanita Tikaram wrote it and sang it first (it reached #25 on the US Modern Rock chart in ‘88 so I must have heard the original… I was in college totally soaking up stuff like that).

Kind of interesting that the song was recorded by a teenager and a 40-something in back-to-back years. It’s got an uncanny classic torch song quality but with young/contemporary-style lyrics. Quite singular,

She seems a good un'.

I got the new box set -- haven't listened but went straight to the liner notes, which were pretty clearly done if not in a hurry, then briskly, they're song-by-song commentary that seems like it was done while listening. She is dismissive of The Sweet Keeper, which I love, so that annoys me, but it's a pleasure to read her speaking about her music and my copy of Lovers in the City hasn't been around for an age, I'm excited to play that in the car soon.

The Sweet Keeper is probably my least favorite of her original major label run. Sophomore slump indeed. But she probably has a few other reasons to dislike it (big career start, big expectations, probably made in haste).

ok so her latest, I'd put off listening to it -- the title really didn't grab me -- LIAR (Love Isn't a Right), what does this even mean -- but I'm two tracks in and it's very VERY good if you are into Tanita Tikaram and maybe even if you aren't? she's singing pretty high in her register and sounds great, the adult contemporary energy is very deep and strong...highest recommendation for TT heads!!

Noted! I'll give an ear when I can!

the track they led with is track #3, "this perfect friend," and it's not a patch on the two before it...but it's a little more beatles-esque maybe if that's a rationale...going progressively downtempo is a choice for sure, the fourth track is even slower and the fifth slower still after that...they're good but for me TT's big strength is breezy midtempo melancholy with a little lift. missing the halcyon days of tracks 1 and 2 but this fifth one has more heft anyway, it's heavy honestly, Tikaram's lyrics are often not great but "fear + chills" really gets somewhere...album is honestly kinda weird in a very good way!

this record is honestly pretty special. "sweet feather & the storm" is incredible