Valve bone woe

"Most of Valve Bone Woe sways to a soft, gentle beat and is dressed in elegant strings, keyboards, and other jazzy accouterments, but beneath this lush exterior lies some modern flair. Hints of studio trickery are peppered throughout the record, most evident in elongated electronic echoes, and far from seeming out of place, they lend the album a certain sense of hipness; Hynde isn't shutting out the modern world, she's ushering the past into the present. The vibe is appealing and so is Hynde's performance. Unhurried and nuanced, she eases herself into songs she clearly loves, and that sense of warmth lingers long after the album's last notes fade away".

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"Despite choosing multiple songs famously performed by vocal powerhouses (Streisand, Simone, Sinatra), Hynde's voice is rarely the main attraction. Rather, it is the attitude she radiates - one of aspirational nonchalance, lightly worn swagger and subtle subversiveness - that makes Valve Bone Woe so inviting and interesting: less an indicator of impending irrelevance than a reminder of the thrills Hynde is still capable of producing".

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"Conceived after Hynde finished recording "I Wish You Love" for the 2000 film Eye of the Beholder (she wanted to do a more jazz-oriented album), Valve Bone Woe offers an impressive array of covers of classic songwriters such as Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane and Brian Wilson ... Valve Bone Woe is a lovingly crafted collection of covers - a surprising, successful new endeavour by an artist evidently still keen to challenge herself".

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