Carol Kidd - Dreamsville - Vortex Website

For this, her first recording for eight years (although she's been with Linn for 25), Carol Kidd has selected what she terms ‘a handful of songs [she's] always wanted to record' (It Never Entered My Mind, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, Stars Fell on Alabama, How Long Has This Been Going On? etc.) plus a couple of originals written with guitarist Nigel Clark and a bonus closer, her signature tune, When I Dream. The result is a wonderfully relaxed, elegant album in which Kidd's voice - an entirely unforced, pure and affecting instrument that delivers lyrics with a natural warmth and understanding that songwriters must dream of - manages to combine unsentimental intimacy with considerable musical intelligence.

Most of the material is taken at an easy, almost languorous pace that suits Kidd's style perfectly, and whether she's conveying the gamely suppressed poignant disappointment of Can't We Be Friends?, the equally subtle emotions of Cole Porter's It's Alright with Me, or the more straightforward sentiments of Happiness is a Thing Called Joe, she holds the listener's attention with apparently effortless grace.

Her accompanying musicians - pianist Paul Harrison, guitarist Nigel Clark, bassist Mario Caribe, drummer Alyn Cosker - all perform discreetly but flawlessly, and overall, this is a (quietly) triumphant return to recording for a woman who more than justifies Cleo Laine's comment: ‘her control is thrilling ... she is world-class'.

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