Joan Armatrading

With any justice, Walk under Ladders should finally establish Joan Armatrading's popularity
in America. Then again, if there were any justice, that would have happened in 1976,
when her third album, Joan Armatrading, offered consistent proof that she was an original,
assured songwriter who had fresh things to say about the tug of war between brains and
passion in a voice that was affecting and unmistakable. Since then, she's becom... More >

Where Richard Gottehrer is attracted to Blondie and the Go-Go's, Steve Lillywhite's meal tickets are U2 and the Psychedelic Furs. And in a singer-songwriter whose large voice creates a grandiose impression that does less than nothing for her terse habits of speech, the switch from one to the other is the wrong kind of big deal. (Grade: B-)