The singer who found Universal's efforts to turn her into a retro chanteuse too stifling continues to develop the sparky, imaginative writing style she debuted on Between Me & The Wardrobe. A series of twilight characters is unveiled in melodic, acoustic arrangements, full of shifting textures and moods. So Worn Out is stylish pop, My Mini And Me is the best blues you'll hear this year about a car, but the hurly burly of Jane Into A Beauty Queen shows how she sometimes over-complicates. Her singing - warm, soulful, and with a husky hint of Elkie Brooks - is classy throughout. But, for all it's invention, it's a more traditional jazz ballad, Some Days I Forget, that is the showstopper here. Ironically, it's jus tithe sort of song Universal would have loved her to sing. Mojo
Groomed as a major label jazz diva in the wake of Norah Jones, Herbert has retreated to the fringes. This low-budget independent release takes her away from 'chocolate box' jazz standards towards singersongwriter terrain and a warm, sultry take on acoustic folk and pop. There are surprises, too, including an impassioned cover of David Bowie's Rock 'n' Roll Suicide. *** Daily Mail
Few singers have made as big an impact in so shoert a time as 27-year old Gwyneth Herbert, whose major label albums with Universal and Blue Note are now behind her. All The Ghosts is the assertion of a highly personal musical voice, perfectly epitomised by Jane into a Beauty Queen with shifting metres, contrasting backgrounds, and lyrcis that actually mean something. Jazzwise
A super-talented, 27-year-old singer-songwriter based in east London, Herbert has already cut records for Universal and Blue Note, but slipped between the cracks in those labels’ niche-marketing logic. Here, free to pursue her own whims, she whips up beautiful, vaguely jazzy, keenly observed vignettes, mostly about outsider women. There’s a great cover of David Bowie’s Rock ’n’ Roll Suicide, too. Telegraph rating: * * * *
'Another step away from the showbiz ledge, towards which an early signing to a jazz major once edged her. This is art-song contrived around a small acoustic ensemble which might, on other days, play jazz. But it isn't jazz. What is it? Well, it's mordantly English; it's largely narrative; and it's elaborate in the way that handbags can be but simple in the way they are simple. (The basic function is always legible) If Hanns Eisler had been a woman and written with Ray Davies, he might have come up with something like this.'
Independent on Sunday
Nick Coleman - 28th June 2009
On her fourth album, Gwyneth Herbert builds on the strengths that made her last release, Between Me And The Wardrobe, a success. Focussing on her folk-jazz vocal style and on her own compositions rather than cover versions, All The Ghosts should see her career continue on its recent upward trajectory. Herbert's songs are rightly starting to draw comparisons with those of 60s Ray Davies and Paul McCartney. She has a fine sense of melody and her latest songs tell stories that equal 'Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station, every Friday night' or 'Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begins'.
The songs create a cast of inner-city archetypes, each with an intriguing tale to tell. Many of the protagonists are society's losers or victims. Unlike Davies or McCartney, Herbert unfailingly sees the world from a woman's point of view. It is no coincidence that four of the track titles contain women's names.Her voice and phrasing are often reminiscent of Joni Mitchell, noticeably on Nataliya. The elasticity of her voice perfectly conveys the songs' emotions and softens their occasional bleakness. Men are either objects of desire, as on My Narrow Man, or contempt, as on Put Your Mouth Where Your Money Is.The accompaniment from pianist Steve Holness, bassist Sam Burgess, percussionist Dave Price and guitarist Al Cherry is subtly understated, complementing the voice well. Rarely in the limelight, the music impresses when it is featured. Cherry's acoustic guitar is the highlight of My Mini and Me, notably the slide guitar coda.
Previously available online in 2008 as a download-only album entitled Ten Lives, this expanded and retitled version is a coherent and compelling song suite. One of the added tracks comes as a surprise after the nine Herbert originals. Almost as an afterthought, the album closes with a raw version of Bowie's Rock 'n' Roll Suicide. It seems an odd finale given Herbert's age. She was born years after Ziggy Stardust gave his last performance. Nonetheless, as on the original Bowie release, it brings this impressive album to a suitably emotional and rousing conclusion.BBC Online - John Eyles
