Arriving ten years after
Lulu's impressive 2004 comeback Back on Track, 2015's
Making Life Rhyme is every bit that record's equal and perhaps it's better in some ways. Working from a set of nearly all-original material for the first time ever -- there are two covers among these 11 songs, including
Jimi Hendrix's "Angel" done in the style of
Rod Stewart's covers --
Lulu sounds free and inspired by the retro-soul revivals of the past decade. In a sense, the success of
Adele and
Amy Winehouse has freed
Lulu to indulge her love of old-fashioned girl group pop and hopping Tamla-Motown, but there's also a fair amount of bluesy grit here, surfacing even on the buoyant bounce of "Every Single Day." This is evidence of how
Lulu doesn't play a strict stylistic revivalist here: she's blurring the lines between R&B and Brill Building, soul and girl group pop, coming up with a vivid, spirited record that ranks among her very best. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine