No, Tom Jones, No! (Feat. “Motherless Child” with Portishead)

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Why am I listening to Tom Jones in earnest?

Why do I feel like I have a soft spot for him somehow some way?

Why do I respect how much of a great vocalist he is? (Even when he misses the mark commercially, his voice on its own is consistently and completely solid - he hits each note right smack dab in the middle - never even a hair sharp or flat, just right in the middle - and has a set of lungs on him that can carry that voice for measures at a time.)

Why do I in all sincerity love the song “Sexbomb”?

These are all great questions and I don’t have the answer to any of them.

So, here’s a Tom Jones collaboration with Portishead that is surprisingly good - not a lot of subtlety, but man does he ever have a set of pipes on him.