Album Review: A Ghost In Every Bar

The Times

Clive Davis, 9th September 2012

The late Fran Landesman – lyricist, poet and all-round hipster – would surely have loved this tribute. Ian Shaw is a jazz singer who has a weakness for over-embellishment, yet he keeps the curlicues in check on this bare-bones collaboration with Landesman's pianist, Simon Wallace. The result is a wistful, often droll after-hours stroll. Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most and Ballad of the Sad Young Men lead the way, of course, but Shaw digs just as deep on that idler's anthem Small Day Tomorrow. As for Down, it has to be one of the most stylish takes on self-pity ever put on paper.