The Turn (Deluxe Edition)

Had Dusty Springfield still been making records in 2007 with her vocal power intact, she might have sounded like Alison Moyet does on Turn. The similarities lie not only in the singing, but also in the material, which mixes orchestrated pop/rock with a blue-eyed soul sensibility. There are important differences, though, chief among them the greater vibrato and stridency in Moyet's vocal delivery. The tracks are in an adult contemporary pop mold that's far above the usual standards for that genre, yet still too mainstream and, in some senses, slick and stiffly executed to find much favor among the hip crowd. It's still aimed at the mature pop market, but songs like "The Man in the Wings" betray a certain theatrical sensibility. As it happens, a few of the songs ("Smaller," the tango-flavored "Home," and "World Without End") were indeed first written (by Moyet and Pete Glenister, who are responsible for all the material on the album) and performed in 2006 for a stage play, Smaller, in which Moyet starred with Dawn French. She does vary her approach substantially throughout the disc, "It's Not the Thing Henry" coming close to funky rock, though moody romantic ruminations usually remain at the core of most of the music. [Universal's 2007 U.K. edition included one bonus track.]