new introductory bit here.

This is a reviews page based on my own collection, which just keeps growing despite itself. If it isn't listed here, it's because I don't own it yet, or I haven't gotten around to it yet.

Also, bother your local "new rock" radio station and make sure they are playing "new rock" and not "Rock the Casbah," which is not new.

note: entries in red text indicate my pick for the artist's best available album. A gold numeral indicates the POPocalypse winner of the year's best album; second- and third-place winners are in blue. Green lettering indicates an obviously exploitative record company compilation without apparent artist input. Purple lettering indicates something nobody legally got paid for.

British vocalist Fordham possesses an astonishing range, which she normally keeps low and deep, but can be used to remarkable effect when she needs to hit very high notes. Her work as a heartbroken torch singer carries an obvious jazz influence, and she�s easily able to handle anything from traditional jazz songs like �For You Only For You� to upbeat pop. What she handles best, however, are numbers that tear at the deepest wounds of love's most painful betrayals.

Working as Jules Fordham, she spent several years as a session vocalist, providing backing vocals on such albums as Mari Wilson's wonderful Showpeople. Eventually, she landed a contract with Circa Records, resulting in her 1988 solo debut. The first track, and her first single, was the top 30 "Happy Ever After," which has a strong argument for the title of most depressing song ever written. Other songs on the record, like the upbeat "Where Does the Time Go?" and the assertive "Woman of the 80s," are considerably more cheerful, but the overall effect is a beautifully tragic album.

Tragic doesn't begin to describe 1989�s Porcelain. It was her most successful in the US, since it carried the VH-1 hit �Manhattan Skyline,� which prompted me to buy this on vinyl in early �90 and make a cassette copy. I truly cherished the album, but gave away my tape and sold my record inside six months. This emotional, doomed explosion of an album, most specifically a pained, magical piece called �Towerblock,� fit a sad situation all too painfully well. "Towerblock" was, in fact, such a bleak personal reminder of something that I couldn't have the album in my dorm any more. It took me a decade to find the maturity to draw strength from Julia's pain. She's that powerful. It goes without saying that I think Porcelain is among the decade's best albums.

1991's Swept is likewise something of a lyrical downer, as song titles like "Betrayed" and "Patches of Happiness" might indicate. The first single "I Thought it Was You" is another dark and tragic one, while "Love Moves (in Mysterious Ways)," which was a minor hit from the soundtrack of The Butcher's Wife, is incredibly beautiful. Falling Forward, her fourth album, is considerably happier, and might be a better starting point for potential new fans, since the song arrangements are considerably more traditional. Forward didn't break any new ground for either Fordham or the genre, and it was a worldwide chart failure. "I Can't Help Myself" managed some radio play in the US.

Discouraged by her declining chart fortunes, Circa elected not to issue East West in England, despite an obvious improvement in her sound (thanks in part to the production by guitarist Michael Brook) and her lyrics. Even though the songs move with greater strength and energy, Julia is bringing up even starker emotional anguish here. The result is a frankly amazing album which, on some tracks, allows listeners to either sing along with a thrilling arrangement or be stunned at what the lyrics actually convey. Other songs are stripped down for maximum emotional impact; "More Than I Can Bear" concerns a woman's pain seeing her ex with a new girlfriend, and tormenting herself with what they must be doing together. It addresses both understandable jealousy and self-destructive behavior frankly and with no quarter.

In 2001, she was signed to Division One, a subsidiary of Warners, and a sixth album, Concrete Love, was planned. Shortly after promo copies of the CD were released, Division One was shut down. The album resurfaced on Vanguard in the summer of 2002, and the delay actually worked to its advantage. One of the promo copies made its way to Atlanta singer India.Arie, who recorded her own vocal track to the title tune. Issued with this new recording, the album got considerably more press than it might otherwise have done, and a small club tour sold out throughout the US. The album's showpiece is "Roadside Angel," a song about the life of Minnie Riperton. While the album does not seem to have charted on Billboard, a remix of "Wake Up With You" made the dance chart's top 10, and the album was released in the UK in October, making it her first release of new material there in eight years. (12/02)

JULIA FORDHAM: The Julia Fordham Collection (1998, UK #102, ****)
An excellent compilation from her first five albums, the 15 songs here include two new tracks, two remixes, and a new version of "Where Does the Time Go?" sung as a duet with Curtis Stigers. A remix of "Happy Ever After" opens the album and the original closes it. Both versions are really incredibly depressing.

JULIA FORDHAM: Bloomsbury Theatre 1998 (London 9/24/98, Lazycat Recordings)
Despite not having an album released in England in four years, Julia was still playing live. This is a great performance, and a fantastic recording. Amusingly, her "talking voice" is wrecked and she can barely speak, but her singing register is almost wholly unaffected. The audience is appreciative and she performs her newly-written "Something Right," which wouldn't appear on record for another four years.