"At 72, Tom Jones still sounds like Tom Jones – big as a sequoia, impossibly deep, occasionally full of ham…Jones’s voice is so gigantic that it can seem like a put-on, and he’s always known it; part of his charm is the way he’ll play it up, often with a hoarse cackle at the end of a line”
—Rolling Stone Magazine (2013)
"...it can be easy to forget that Jones is a man with a passion for roots music that runs several fathoms deep. His appearance alongside a number of British blues luminaries in Mike Figgis' contribution to Martin Scorcese's series of The Blues films revealed a man exposing his emotions without the usual trappings of showbiz schmaltz and glitzy presentation. More often than not, he was no longer the Vegas crooner of legend but a man tapping his very heart and soul to deliver a performance of uncharacteristic tendernesss and undeniable human frailty."
—The Quietus (2010)
Praise for his album “Spirit in the Room” (2012)
"The vocals are heartfelt and powerful; the arrangements are unobtrusive; the results are impressive."
–The New Yorker
“Jones lives and breathes inside these songs and shows us new sides to both the work and himself. Simply stunning…the entertainer becomes an artist”
—The Sunday Times
“This is a beautiful album of great songs performed with taste and sung with tender resonance by one of the most distinctive voices of British popular music…the results have undeniable emotional heft”
—The Telegraph
“Jones raises his game and lowers his guard…magnificent”
—Daily Mail
Praise for his album “Praise & Blame” (2010)
“On Praise & Blame, that gutsy Northern soul voice sounds righteous and true”.
—Billboard
“A faultless batch of songs [that] brings out the best in this veteran singer’s artistry. Johns lays down a resonant sonic foundation that is an ideal framework for Jones’ newfound gravitas”.
Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times, 4*/4
“Jones’ instrument has fire and brimstone—enough to make this elder statesman sound more virile and alive at 70 than ever”.
—Jim Farber, New York Daily News, 4/5*
“He’s managed to make himself something highly unusual for a man at this stage of his career: unclassifiable. Unpredictable. Tom Jones is no joke”.
—Ken Tucker, NPR Music
“A batch of gospel, blues and rockabilly songs so raw and pure that every impassioned note and every percussive beat hits the heart. This is tom Jones’ creative edict”.
—Mario Tarradell, The Dallas Morning News, Grade A
“With Praise & Blame, he’s reached deep and tapped into the real stuff. Impeccably sympathetic, haunting and rawboned…amid its grim-yet-joyous ecstasy, Jones gives no hint that his reinvention is anything less than a legitimate bid for salvation—artistic, personal, and even eternal”.
—Jason Albert, The A.V. Club, Grade B+
“The song choices are impeccable, all propelled by Jones’s remarkable voice, still a marvel of quaveriness and bluster and sinew after all these years”.
—The Washington Post