Kafunta

Now reissued and though it cannot hold a candle to its predecessor, P.P. Arnold’s second and final Immediate album is nevertheless a dramatic offering, its greatest flaws lying more in the conflict between singer and label than in either performance or production. Recorded with Immediate head Andrew Loog Oldham at the controls, Kafunta is riven by his dream of establishing Arnold in the same mass entertainment world as Cilla Black and Lulu, at the same time as Arnold fights to retain her own R&B sensibilities. Occasionally the conflict works well — the MOR heartbreaker “Angel of the Morning” is performed with such a depth of yearning purpose that no other version on earth will ever sound so majestic.