MORRIS, JENNY

"I think this is the best album I've ever done. It's definitely the best singing I've ever done. And I know why: cause it was done on a small budget. When you've got binding restrictions you get creative, and you also keep to first takes a lot more, which are very often the best ones."

Clear Blue In Stormy Skies is a watershed album for Jenny Morris. Between a dozen remodelled radio hits of the '80s and '90s is an overdue reaffirmation of her rare gifts as a singer and songwriter. More importantly, in the act of reinvention are the seeds of a revitalised future.

Surprises include the Keith Richards raunch of You're Gonna Get Hurt, a cosmic soul version of Body & Soul and an ingeniously skewed retake of You I Know, kindly rewritten by its author, Neil Finn, in Auckland late last year - that's him on guitars and backing vocals too.

The rest of the album was made fast and loose in February '06 with Jenny's long term road partners: Steve Balbi (Noiseworks, Electric Hippies) produced and played guitars; Paul Searles (Skunkhour) played a range of vintage keyboards including piano, Hammond, Wurlitzer and Rhodes. Backing singer Josh Quong Tart completed a small, close-knit ensemble.

Jenny's especially warm and intimate vocals were caught with a vintage valve microphone once used by Frank Sinatra. "We also used a lot of this old spring reverb," she says. "It crapped out a lot and it was very frustrating, but man, when it worked it was amazing and I think that's why this album has got that special earthiness about it."

This combination of sonic classicism and fresh discovery reignites Jenny's first hit of '84, Everywhere I Go, as well as her biggest subsequent singles, Break In The Weather and She Has To Be Loved. There's an instrumental arrangement of her most requested song, Little Little, and a languid INXS cover, This Time, in tribute to her friend Michael Hutchence.

The title, Clear Blue In Stormy Skies, comes from the sole new track, The Time. It's a song with the kind of mature and reflective tone, emotional integrity and musical excellence that only comes with years of experience.

Estimated despatch 5-10 days after ordering.