Life Love Flesh Blood (LP)

If you don't know Imelda May, prepare to be blown away. If you are already a fan, get ready to hear her as you never have before.

She has found a new groove, exploring blues, soul, gospel, folk, rock, sensitive acoustica, cinematic drama and explosive balladry on a set of the boldest, most personal and intimately autobiographical songs she has ever written. Long celebrated by peers as one of the most sensational singers of contemporary music, Imelda May has made the album of her life

"I've called it Life Love Flesh Blood because that encompasses everything," says Imelda. "It's all in there: birth, sex, love, divorce and death. It's the story of my life."

The album was produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett and features a band of some of the finest musicians in America with guest appearances by guitar hero Jeff Beck and piano maestro Jools Holland. Long-time Imelda May fan Bono has already been singing its praises: "I love the girl she used to be but I think I love even more the woman she's become. Still mischievous and playful, still a siren but there's an ache in her voice now that has me with a glass at my ear to the wall of her world where trouble has entered the room. There's an erotic power here that's not just feminine power. She makes truth telling an invitation to intimacy."

Imelda has been through a lot in the run up to recording. She became a mother for the first time in 2012 but her eighteen year marriage ended in 2015, coinciding with a burst of creativity. "Most songwriters use writing as a form of counselling. It's therapy, like keeping a diary that a lot of people read." In the past she would sometimes "hide things in my songs and twist them around." But this time, she is telling it exactly how it is. "I wanted to go straight to the bone. I had a lot to write about. Life changes, falling out of and falling in love again. It's the whole circle of love and life."