Not too long ago, the US East Coast tour of Swing Out Sister became a casualty of an act of nature: a humongous cloud of ash that blanketed Europe and made flight impossible for nearly a month. They had a choice to make: letting the newly-composed arrangements of their best-known hits go to waste or recording them anyway to make the best of the crisis. Luckily for the fans, the UK-based pop, jazz and soul group chose the latter and the result is Private View, a CD and DVD set that re-imagines the highlights of their dozen releases alongside a DVD of a concert performance in Tokyo, Japan.

Sometimes groups switch up the tempos and the melodies of their most immortal hits so much that they can become untenable or unrecognizable, but SOS’s treatments are just as enjoyable as the originals, stripped down to their bare framework and featuring a more subdued take on the vocals by the coolly-captivating songwriter and vocalist, Corrine Drewery……(read the full review at Knowshi.com)