Beverley Knight: The Fifth Chapter | Album Review

No one could accuse Beverley Knight of celebrating her 50th birthday in a meek and demure fashion. With ‘The Fifth Chapter’, the ‘Queen of British Soul’ turned acclaimed West End Musical Theatre performer releases her first album in seven years, which amounts to her first selection of original material in 14. In collaboration with myriad songwriters and producers, Knight offers a peppy and pumping paean to female self-acceptance.

It is no surprise that the album’s stand-out tracks are the two already-released singles, ‘Last One On My Mind’ and ‘Systematic Overload’. The former gets the party started as the first listing, with Knight’s sweeping, swooping voice providing a defiant rebuke to a former lover who was only there for the good times. Her appealing take-no-romantic-prisoners stance continues in track two, ‘The One I’m Gonna Love’. That person is, of course, ‘me’: ‘I’m going out with me and sleeping with myself’. Knight, it is joyously apparent, is not to be messed with.

The album encompasses Knight’s key musical influences, from R&B and funk to Northern soul and ballad, and contains three collaborations with the London Community Gospel Choir; in ‘I’m On Fire’, their confident backing vocals are teamed with stylish rhythmic percussion clicks. The lyrics of too many songs have a habit of stating the obvious (‘All we need is a little more faith / Get away from cynical debate’ is a sentiment we could have lived without) and Knight is far better showcased when she is allowed to let rip with full-on funk.

After an unexpected swerve in mood with the lovestruck ‘Not Prepared for You’, she returns to up-tempo form in the vibrant ‘Queen of Everything’, in which she is out for a big night at a club, dressed to kill and waiting for the DJ to drop some killer tunes. So infectiously catchy is the mood that we long to be invited to join Knight’s posse for this obviously epic evening. ‘Systematic Overload’ further hymns the eternal allure of the hours of darkness (‘Dance until the clock stops turning time’ is a line of notable sharpness, putting many others to shame), before Knight and the LCGC wrap things up with the rousing and reassuring ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’, that slogan so oft repeated during the pandemic. For a tantalising moment, with these 11 tracks ringing in our ears, we are tempted to believe her.

This article originally appeared in the December 2023 / January 2024 issue of Musicals magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today