(Gut/Mushroom)
***
Review: Russell Baillie
In yet another attempt to remind the young folks of his undiminished larynx-power, Tom Jones plays funky uncle to a raft of duet partners on a bunch of songs unlikely ever to become Vegas standards.
Its 17 tracks are fun enough and it's all endearingly Welsh (with a valleys
roster including the Stereophonics, Manic Street Preacher James Dean Bradfield and Catatonia's Cerys Matthews, the latter in a playful Baby It's Cold Outside).
But, of course, sharing mike time with Tom is a musical head-in-lion's mouth. And while chip-off-old-block Robbie Williams (on Lenny Kravitz's Are You Gonna Go My Way?), Chrissie Hynde (Iggy's Lust for Life), or Van Morrison (on his Sometimes We Cry) provide ample sparring partners, others are not so lucky.
Still here's something appealing about those off-kilter offerings, whether it's Space (on the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon), the Divine Comedy (Portishead's faux Bond theme All Mine) or Portishead themselves backing Uncle Tom on Motherless Child. Though some combos (with Italian star Zucchero on She Drives Me Crazy; with Natalie Imbruglia on INXS's Never Tear Me Apart) just sound like something the marketing department thought up over a long lunch.
