Armatrading's recent album, Show Some Emotion, revealed an evolving star in touch with herself…. (p. 59)

Armatrading has rocked out, or tried to, since the release of her first record five years ago. Whatever's for Us, a collaboration with composer Pam Nestor, is one of her best…. Songs about city girls and deranged women, international relations resolved with manna from heaven, the sea's big fish. I love it.

Two subsequent albums are more oblique, personal. The music seems more funky, but in transition. That she was writing more than her share of songs about quick men, that she wound up separating independence and freedom from sexual love, only means that she was rising fast in a man's world and didn't know what to do with the needs that she, as a woman, brought to it. (pp. 59-60)

The first breath of fresh air I felt from Show Some Emotion...