The Turn

Alison Moyet’s The Turn is her seventh solo studio album, released October 15, 2007, and a collection that places her expressive voice within orchestrated pop, blues-inflected soul, and theatrical balladry. Written with longtime collaborator and producer Pete Glenister, it favors carefully unfolding melodies over the electronic textures associated with her Yazoo beginnings. Moyet described its foundations in terms of chanson and Roy Orbison’s ability to build from quiet beginnings to impassioned climaxes—a useful guide to the swelling drama of “One More Time” and “Anytime at All.” Its defining quality is interpretation: her smoky lower register and soaring delivery give the songs their emotional weight.

The album’s theatrical character has a direct source: “World Without End,” “Home,” and “Smaller” originated in the stage play Smaller, in which Moyet starred alongside Dawn French. Those songs bring an explicitly dramatic dimension to a record that also includes the off-kilter “The Sharpest Corner (Hollow)” and the single “A Guy Like You.” Across these contrasting settings, the arrangements leave Moyet’s voice at the center, allowing restrained passages to develop into expansive, emotionally charged performances. Where her later album The Minutes would embrace exploratory electronics, The Turn draws its character from classic songcraft, theatrical storytelling, and the tension between intimacy and grandeur.