Barb Jungr - Love Me Tender - Sunday Times

Poised between pop, jazz and cabaret, Jungr's tributes to Jacques Brel, Léo Ferré and Dylan are among the most thoughtful British recordings of the past decade. She takes risks - an album dedicated to Presley could easily turn into high-grade kitsch - but there are no such problems here. Always on My Mind, along with the title ballad and the superb Love Letters, are transformed. The arrangers, Adrian York and Jonathan Cooper, have stripped the pieces to their basics, with Jungr's voice cushioned by celeste, minimalist piano figures and string quartet. Presley's lush sentimentality goes out of the window: in its place is an art-song sensibility tinged with cultured R&B. * * * *