We’ve been there before with near-jazz signings and no-jazz-at-all signings in recent years. But surely it’s not the most obvious thing in the world for Annie Lennox to be on Blue Note.

Seems like a marketing mismatch. But then again Annie Lennox fans are going to buy her record because they’re Annie Lennox fans not because they are buying into notions of an historic jazz label. Fundamentally if it’s a good record it doesn’t really matter what the name of the record label is. Yet “record labels” stand for something surely in terms of curating music, the sound, style, artist roster, and if those decisions don’t stack up along some kind of obvious artistic lines (rather than business ones primarily) then anything is fair game.

The other issue, which is even more obvious, is Lennox's voice isn’t a jazz voice at all even if she attempts material as here that is often covered by jazz singers. This is a recurring theme especially when rock or R&B performers, or even classical divas decide to do a jazz album. It is interesting to see what they all do with the material but inevitably it’s only of interest to the singer’s fanbase unless the singer is willing to really immerse themselves in jazz and step out of their comfort zone. If they aren’t willing to do that then the exercise seems a little half-hearted at best.