She's back! It's the first album in nearly four years from Rochdale soul diva Lisa Stansfield and guess what, nowt has changed. Record label bumph would have you believe that this is a good thing, referring to the "timeless" and "ageless" quality of the singer's voice. Which in a way is absolutely right...
Stansfield does indeed have a mighty fine and capable voice. It's just that, bar the odd new and shiny production technique, or the occasional synth noise or beat borrowed from contemporary dance and R&B, Lisa's own brand of soul music seems to have been treading water since 1989.
'Face Up's songs of love, lust and loss are, by and large, slinky, funksome ditties laced with strings and treacle-thick bubbling basslines. It's all polished, polite and pleasant enough, the stuff of grown-up car journeys, dinner parties and candlelit attempts to put the romance back into tired marriages.
Simply Red-like opener 'I've Got Something Better' finds Stansfield fluttering her coquettish eyelashes while singing "you've got something on your mind but I've got something better." A soaring gospel chorus adds a bit of variety on '8-3-1', "8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning", while the slightly Latino feeling flirtation of 'I'm Coming To Get You' recalls Swing Out Sister.
Elsewhere, Stansfield breaks up with her lover to the acoustic guitar balladry of 'Wish On Me', wrestles with the fact that she has the hots for her best friend's boyfriend on the R&B tinged 'Boyfriend', and goes a bit West End musical on the dramatic, string-swathed, piano tinkling end-of-the-affair balladry of 'Didn't I'.
Pretty much business as usual then and who can argue with that? It's just that, five albums in, it would be nice to hear Stansfield taking a risk, or trying a change of musical environment. For instance, how would her great voice stand up to guesting on a Massive Attack, Faithless or Zero 7 track? Worth a punt eh?
