''Lifejacket'' is a 2008

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Ian Shaw.

Critical reception

Christopher Loudon of ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

'' noted that ''Lifejacket'' was Shaw's first attempt at finding his own voice, saying, "Stylistically, he sounds as if he's shrugged off the surplice, abandoned his pew and trudged through the mud in search of a long night at the nearest pub. Additionally, all 13 tracks were written or cowritten by Shaw, and demonstrate an ability to dissect social foibles and ills (while also plumbing the depths of one's own heart) that is fully on par with

amie Amie may refer to: *Amie, an alternate spelling of the female personal name Amy *AMIE, the Associate Member of the Institution of Engineers, a professional certification given by India's Institution of Engineers *Amie (song), "Amie" (song), song f ...

Cullum, just one generation removed. Shaw's goal, brilliantly realized, was to hold up his encroaching middle age like a prism and study all its facets." John Fordham of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' stated "this gifted maverick has taken a different kind of risk, in making his life's passage 'from young man to middle-aged child' the central thread of this album of originals" and that "Shaw's mix of haunting falsettos, jazzy agility and conviction is as classy as ever". John Bungey of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' praised "the vivid imagery, the imaginative small-group arrangements, the purring electric bass" but noted that "Shaw's emotive vocal style can sound overwrought".

Track listing

#"Love at First Tequila" – 3:56 #"Lifejacket" – 4:38 #"She's Loaded" – 4:08 #"A Good and Simple Man" – 3:58 #"Glue" – 4:19 #"Forty-Two" (Ian Shaw) – 5:03 #"Northop Road" – 3:15 #"Pamela" – 4:21 #"I Want to Live in Paris" – 3:41 #"Hiraeth" – 3:02 #"My Safest Place" – 3:43 #"Letter from a Dead Soldier" (Shaw) – 4:25 #"Flowers" (Rozz Williams) – 3:40 All songs written by David Preston and Ian Shaw, except where noted.

Personnel

* Ian Shaw -

vocal The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound production i ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

Liane Carroll Liane Carroll (born 9 February 1964, London) is an English vocalist, pianist and keyboardist. Jazz critic Dave Gelly of ''The Observer'' has described her as "one of the most stylistically flexible pianists around, with a marvellous, slightl ...

- vocals *Thad Kelly -

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

*Mark Fletcher -

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s *Thebe Lipere -

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Guy Barker Guy Jeffrey Barker, (born 26 December 1957) is an English jazz trumpeter and composer. Early life Barker was born in Chiswick, London, the son of an actress and a stuntman. He started playing the trumpet at the age of twelve, and within a year ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

*Julian Siegel -

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...

*David Preston - guitar, composer *Gabriella Swallow -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

References

{{Authority control Ian Shaw (singer) albums Linn Records albums 2008 albums