{"id":41901,"date":"2010-03-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-07T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/24-hours\/"},"modified":"2010-03-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-07T00:00:00","slug":"24-hours","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/24-hours\/","title":{"rendered":"24 Hours"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been planning on reviewing this album since last year, but every time I sat down to finish my piece, I\u2019d start listening to something else and write about that instead. Just why that is I\u2019m not sure, because this recent release from Tom Jones happens to be one of his very best. When Jones released 24 Hours<\/i>, <\/i>he had already been singing for half a century (and had been famous for most of that time).<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The pride of Wales, Jones has had trouble over the years trying to \u201cupdate\u201d his sound and image when it really wasn\u2019t necessary. A hip cover of Prince\u2019s \u201cKiss\u201d in 1989 worked a treat, but the dreadful attempt at reinvention with the rancid The Lead And How To Swing It <\/i>(1995) failed miserably. Tom did, however, hit pay dirt with a Brit-pop covers\/duets album aptly titled Reload<\/i> (1999) before faltering again with a lame attempt at some serious R&B\/hip-hop style grooves on 2002\u2019s Mr. Jones<\/i>. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

So it\u2019s with great pleasure that I can tell you just how good 24 Hours <\/i>really is and how incredibly powerful that world-famous voice still is. One of the most pleasing aspects of this album is that instead of trying for a completely new sound, Jones and his producers finally have succeeded in reinventing his own unique style. There\u2019s still plenty of horns and big, big choruses, but there\u2019s also some great urban beats and beefy arrangements for Jones to really go to town on.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Opener \u201cI\u2019m Alive\u201d is a perfect example of all these elements working in unison. It\u2019s both brassy and heavy, backed by a great rhythm track, and upfront from the get-go is Mr. Jones himself declaring, \u201cI\u2019m alive \/ And I\u2019m seeing things mighty clear today \/ I\u2019m alive.\u201d <\/o:p><\/p>\n

And for the next twelve tracks, the quality never dips below brilliant, his voice remains almost perfect, and the songs are expertly crafted for the singer. More highlights include the Bono\/Edge composition \u201cSugar Daddy,\u201d which finds Jones reassuring us he still has the \u201cposition\u201d and the \u201cammunition\u201d to warrant his sex-god status. In anyone else\u2019s hands it would be hysterical for all the wrong reasons, but Jones gets it done with all the bravado and conviction he can muster. \u201cIn Style And Rhythm\u201d is another knockout track that is perfect for him in every way. It\u2019s a cool, breezy number that is a nice change from the overall \u201cbigness\u201d of 24 Hours<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIf He Should Ever Leave You\u201d is the most vintage-sounding cut on the record, and it works superbly for Jones, who made similar songs like \u201cIt\u2019s Not Unusual\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s New Pussycat\u201d his trademark sound. The most poignant song on the record is easily \u201cThe Road,\u201d which Jones co-wrote as a dedication to his wife of almost fifty years. Jones laments his life on the road and all of its spoils while soulfully declaring his love for his missus; it\u2019s a beautiful song and a rare insight into the notoriously private singer\u2019s life.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

More love-themed gems appear with \u201cWe Got Love\u201d and \u201cGive A Little Love,\u201d both of which complement the album superbly. \u201cSeasons\u201d is the standout ballad that recalls \u201cThe Green, Green Grass Of Home,\u201d no doubt due to the fact that Jones\u2019 voice has barely changed since his glory days. It\u2019s just a little older and a tad deeper, and although some of those huge notes are no longer attainable, with material as good as this, he really doesn\u2019t need them anyway.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Last but not least is a curious inclusion, but a very worthy one nonetheless. \u201cThe Hitter\u201d is taken from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s morbidly acoustic and somewhat underwhelming album Devils & Dust<\/i>. On that record, it comes near the end of a collection of songs that sound very similar and it loses some of its poignancy as a result. Here, however, Jones has given it the treatment a song like this deserves. His battle-weary voice is perfectly suited to lament the life and times of a once great prizefighter. He gets inside the character and delivers one of his greatest interpretations ever. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Overall, I hope that this album gets the kudos it deserves. Tom Jones is in rare form here, and not only did he deliver this collection of songs with a conviction and passion that\u2019s been missing from his work for some time, he also had a hand in writing most of the material here. 24 Hours <\/i>could very well be Tom Jones\u2019 best ever album; it\u2019s that<\/i> good. <\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8539],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41901","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-jones","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41901"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41901"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}