Album Review: Ballads by Liane Carroll

The peerless British vocalist Liane Carroll is at the Pizza Express Jazz Club until 29 April with a variety of guests, and this collection of famous love songs will probably take centre stage. It's another imaginative Carroll collaboration with producer and trumpeter James McMillan, on which LA arranger Chris Walden's arrangements give new spins to torchy classics like Here's to Life, Only the Lonely and You've Changed – allowing a world-class blues and ballads singer the space to completely open up. Carroll's subtle pitching, tone colouration and jazz improviser's timing reinvent Here's to Life as a distilled understatement accompanied only by acoustic guitar; her earthiness is revealingly complemented by soft strings on Goodbye; and Mad About the Boy is so slow as to be prayer-like.

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Whether singing, playing the piano or doing both at once, Liane Carroll is famous for coming up with spontaneous perfection. Maybe that's why most of her previous albums have been simple, straightforward affairs, often recorded live. But with 2011's gorgeous Up and Down and now this, a whole new dimension of her talent stands revealed. Surrounded by a changing cast of the best musicians around, illuminated by piquant arrangements, her singing takes on a new, glowing depth.

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