Iggy Pop has declared that Jo Harrop is a fine jazz singer, and she won Jazz Album of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for When Winter Turns to Spring last year. Larry Klein, four-time Grammy winner for his production work with Joni Mitchell and Herbie Hancock, among a whole host of other top-line performers, was sufficiently impressed when he heard Harrop sing to want to produce her album. What more do you need to know?

This new, soulfully resonant disc was recorded in Los Angeles last September and finds Harrop on fine form. Her voice has an irresistible smoky quality and intimate charm, and her selection of covers (here, ‘If It Wasn’t For Bad’ by Elton John and Leon Russell, ‘Goodbye’ by Steve Earle, and, most stirringly, ‘Traveling Light’ from Leonard Cohen’s final album) is matched by some very distinguished original songwriting: opener ‘Beautiful Fools’ was a good choice for a single, ‘Whiskey or the Truth’ swells then totters engagingly down a bluesy path you’ll want to follow, while ‘Hurt’ doesn’t waste a note in evoking the shattering power of love. A treat.