Sarah Jane Morris 

Bloody Rain
(Pledge Music)

3/5

HAS it already been nearly 30 years since the deep-voiced diva Sarah Jane Morris topped the charts with The Communards and their popular Don’t Leave Me This Way? 

Well, yes, it has. And several decades and albums later, Morris returns with what she describes as her most ambitious album yet. 

It’s a mix of Afro-beat and jazz, helped along by the likes of Courtney Pine, the Soweto Gospel Choir and trumpeter Avishai Cohen. 

This collection of love and protest songs tackles everything from sensitive subjects such as honour killings — “You will do just what we want you to do,” she sings in No Beyonce as well as homophobia — “David Kato did not die in vain” — she pledges in a song dedicated to Uganda’s “first openly” gay man — and child soldiers.

The album’s not perfect, with the songs sounding incredibly dated at times and the lyrics are often cheesy. And if you’re not a modern jazz fan, you won’t like this. 

But Morris’s deep, husky voice is stunning and it’s refreshing that someone out there is tackling such difficult topics.

Indianna Purcell