Following a short layoff,
John Martyn returned with his 12th record (including two with wife
Beverley and a best-of collection),
Grace & Danger. The album, which finds
Martyn fronting a tight quartet featuring
Phil Collins on drums and backing vocals, paints a stark, painful portrait of
Martyn and
Beverley's crumbling marriage. Close friend and Island Records president
Chris Blackwell reportedly found the songs so personal and unsettling that he delayed its release for a year.
Martyn sets a somber feel right from the start with the seductive opener "Some People Are Crazy" and carries it, for the most part, throughout the record. The hushed, tormented blues of "Hurt in Your Heart," the beautiful "Sweet Little Mystery," and the heartbreaking closer "Our Love" are a few of the highlights. With some of his clearest, strongest singing in years and a collection of terse, honest originals, as well as a cover of
the Slickers' reggae classic "Johnny Too Bad,"
Grace & Danger shows
John Martyn at the top of his game. ~ Brett Hartenbach