"International Velvet"

I'm amused by the fuss and hype that's surrounding Joss Stone at the moment. She's got an absolutely terrific voice, granted, but the poor kid's barely old enough to have had her first kiss, and people are calling her a soul or blues singer? She needs to be let go for a while, allowed to grow up, experience life's bumps and burns. It's like when Whitney Houston first appeared: lovely instrument, girl, now go learn to use it properly. Which brings us neatly round to Catatonia. Cerys Matthews has the same voice, but by the time this song came out, she'd done the living as well, and you could hear it. If you wanted to know what Janis Joplin would sound like updated into the 90s, then look for Cerys, not Joss. Part of the joy of good blues singing is hearing the singer "let go", confident that the voice will feel its way through. I love this song: for a start, it's almost all in Welsh, which is fine by me even if I don't understand a word of it. Secondly, the chorus is magnificent; it illustrates perfectly what so many folks lack by not having a visceral attachment to their nation. This should be the Welsh National Anthem.