For most of us, our knowledge of Tanita Tikaram starts and ends with her award winning 1988 debut album that sold 5 million copies worldwide and featured the hits Twist in My Sobriety and Good Tradition.

Turn the clock forward almost a quarter of a century and 2012 sees the release of her seventh studio album featuring the pick of the crop of America's current soul musicians, and steered by producer Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Grant Lee Phillips) at Sound Factory in LA.

The musicians include Bryan, keyboard player Keefus Ciancia (B B King, T Bone Burnett), Ray LaMontagne drummer Jay Bellerose and long term collaborator guitarist Mark Creswell. Grant Lee Phillips also makes an appearance on guest vocals.

If like me, Tikaram's intervening years have passed you by, then Can't Go Back finds her is a reflective and calmer place, and inspired by a new found love of Americana, and by the union of country and soul. The result is a warm uplifting album.

It might sound strange to compare Can't Go Back to Annie Lennox, but Tikaram's lower vocal range shares many similarities. A quality release.

***½

Review by Pete Whalley