Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Grant Lee Phillips, Nina Nastasia), keyboardist Keefus Ciancia (B.B. King, T.Bone Burnett, Elton John, Everlast), Ray LaMontagne’s drummer Jay Bellerose and guitarist Mark Creswell (Tanita’s creative partner and co-songwriter since before she had a deal), lovingly crafted ‘Cant go Back’ in the Sound Factory Los Angeles. It proved to be a musical coming home for Munster-born, Basingstoke-raised daughter of Fijian/Malaysian parents. The finished result is a warm, uplifting convergence of Tanita’s fabulously sensual voice and an often raggedy sound, full of joyous clatter courtesy of Bellerose’s World War II-era wooden drums.
“He plays very quietly,” explains Tanita. “But he gives this big sound. Unusually for a drummer, he follows the lyrics before anything else. Keefus played nearly everything live and Mark has this love of old soul and reggae records.”
And, perhaps unusually for a Tanita Tikaram record, ‘Can’t Go Back’ is mostly happy.
“It is, but it’s full of sweet melancholy too,” she purrs. “There’s sex, there’s nostalgia and there’s freedom. The song, ‘Dust On My Shoes’, is all about how you can be free from people’s conceptions of you, if you want and how, while I don’t have faith, I do believe and I do strive to have an open mind. More than any other, that song encapsulates me.”
The courtly gentleman that is Grant Lee Phillips adds his vocal voodoo to ‘All Things To You’ and ‘Keep It Real’, but the real joy is that voice of Tanita Tikaram’s set against those mesmeric soundscapes.
“It turned out more even special than the ideas I’d originally had,“ she smiles. “It feels like I’ve finally grown into my voice, y’know. That’s a great feeling.”