Tom Jones - Long Lost Suitcase, album review: 'still sounds majestic' | London Evening Standard

Tom Jones - Long Lost Suitcase, album review: 'still sounds majestic'The legendary Welsh singer continues his artistic rejuvenation on new albumTom Jones presents 'a mixed bag of musical styles' on latest albumTim P. Whitby

Review at a glance

For fans miffed at his dismissal from The Voice, at least there’s a double helping of Tom Jones this week – an album and autobiography. That he wrote neither of them is no great surprise.

Tom Jones - Long Lost Suitcase

Always a wholehearted interpreter of other people’s songs, Jones’s selection for this record is designed to soundtrack his ghostwriter’s account of a 52-year career.

So his stark, hollering cover of Gillian Welch’s Elvis Presley Blues suggests readers should expect those well-worn anecdotes about the Welshman’s friendship with the King.

Long Lost Suitcase is, appropriately, a mixed bag of musical styles. As well as showing his softer side on Willie Nelson’s Opportunity to Cry, there’s blistering blues on Billy Boy Arnold’s I Wish You Would and a muscular take on the Stones’ Factory Girl.

At 75, Jones’s volcanic vocal still sounds majestic on an album that maintains the artistic rejuvenation of recent years.

(Virgin EMI)