Hearts and Flowers | ||||
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Studio album by Joan Armatrading | ||||
Released | 4 June 1990 | |||
Recorded | Bumpkin Studios | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length | 39:02 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Producer | Joan Armatrading | |||
Joan Armatrading chronology | ||||
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Hearts and Flowers is the twelfth studio album by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. The album was written, arranged and produced by Armatrading; recorded at Bumpkin Studios, her own studios in the grounds of her home; mixed at The Grey Room in Los Angeles and mastered at Sterling Sound, New York. Armatrading began writing the album in 1989 and finished it in April 1990. It was released on 4 June 1990 by A&M Records.
For this album, Armatrading kept on several of the personnel from her previous release The Shouting Stage. Veterans Pino Palladino and Jamie Lane, on bass and drums respectively, continued their long association with her and Manu Katché continued to provide drums and high-hat drums. She also invited Graham Dickson to once again do the engineering and kept on Jeremy Pearce to do the artwork for the album's cover. In a slight departure, Armatrading played keyboards on two of the tracks, something she hadn't done since her early albums Whatever's for Us and Back to the Night. The album in general shows a return to some of the themes and musical influences of these first two albums. Armatrading's unofficial biographer Sean Mayes notes that the album has "a strong feeling of musical roots … and echoes of her earlier albums, particularly Back to the Night".
On the title track "Hearts and Flowers", Armatrading plays all the instruments with no other accompaniment, something she had not done since her second album Back to the Night.
"Can't Let Go" is the second track on this album on which Armatrading plays all the instruments without any other accompaniment.
"More than One Kind of Love" was released as a single and features the keyboards of Don Freeman and the programmed drums of Jamie Lane. It reached number 75 during a two-week stay in the UK Singles Chart, and Armatrading performed the song live on Wogan on 11 May 1990 and again live on TV-am on 16 May 1990.
"Something In the Air Tonight" features a sax solo from jazz saxophonist and composer Andy Sheppard.