The album cover of The Heart Wants, which features vocalist and songwriter Jo Harrop musing over a lyric sheet, is instructive: a pile of books in the foreground includes Barney Hoskyns’ biography of Tom Waits, Lowside of the Road, the Anita O’Day autobiography High Times, Hard Times, plus Leonard Cohen’s poetry collection, Book of Longing. Influences of all three artists ripple through this remarkable follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2020 album recorded with guitarist Jamie McCredie, Weathering The Storm.

Expertly produced by Hannah Vasanth and Jamie McCredie, the album presents 13 seductive explorations of love, pain, desire and longing. Co-written with pianist and composer Paul Edis, Harrop has described ‘If I Knew’ as being 'the key that unlocked the door' in terms of the album’s genesis. In its beauty of construction and ear-catching arrangement, it achieves a Bacharach-like poignancy.

First recorded in 1940, the Ellington/Sigman standard ‘All Too Soon’ strips everything right back to just Christian McBride’s bass, allowing Harrop’s burnished timbre all the space it needs to draw the listener in. Penned by Tom Waits and first recorded by Rickie Lee Jones on her 1983 EP Girl at Her Volcano, and subsequently covered by Ian Shaw, Maria Pia De Vito and others, Harrop brings the entire spectrum of her artistry to bear on ‘Rainbow Sleeves’. In duet with Rebello, her take on ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’ immediately installs itself as one of the great versions of this Lerner and Loewe ballad from Act II of their 1960 Broadway musical, Camelot. Rebello also features on the striking original, ‘Red Mary Janes & A Brand New Hat’, while guitarist and singer Marcus Bonfanti joins Harrop on the powerful ‘Life Inside’.