Chart entered : 23 May 1992
Chart peak : 56
Joan never managed to top the number 10 peak of "Love and Affection" although 1983's "Drop The Pilot" ( her only US hit ) came close by peaking a place lower. Otherwise, her hits were minor and she had more success as an albums artist.
"Wrapped Around Her " was the lead single for her thirteenth studio album, "Square The Circle". Joan muses on her guy's adultery aided by Mick Karn on bass and sisters Linda and Shirley Lewis on backing vocals. The problem is she doesn't actually sound that cut up about it, not helped by a duff lyric in "You didn't fool our friends, they always said you were naughty". It's tastefully restrained adult pop, decorated with fashionable mandolin from the lady herself and with a reasonable hook but not very exciting. An appearance on one of the last episodes of Wogan got it in the charts but it didn't deserve to get very high.
The album followed shortly afterwards, a collection of rueful adult songs about relationships with a lean, pared-back arrangements. That's not a great advantage as few of the songs are strong enough to survive the exposure. The follow-up single "True Love "is pretty and "Can't Get Over ( How I Broke Your Heart )" an adulterer's confessional builds nicely but there's nothing else that stands out apart from "If Women Ruled The World" which is so embarrassingly dire you think it must be tongue in cheek - "No more war, no more hate, women can fight but talking's great". The album reached number 34 which was pretty much par for the course for Joan since the mid-eighties, holding but not expanding her audience.
Joan subsequently left A & M, ending a twenty year association with the label and didn't re-emerge until 1995 with "What's Inside" on RCA . Although recorded with a different cast of musicians , "What's Inside" much of it sounds similar to its predecessor when not dressed up with string arrangements. Again there's a couple of really good songs in "Merchant of Love" and "Songs" though neither of them were chosen for singles. Instead the overblown AIDS song "Everyday Boy" and meandering folk-pop of "Shapes and Sizes" ( inspired by the death of Today presenter Brian Redhead ) went out and failed instead. The album reached number 48 and RCA didn't extend her deal.
A further three years on, Joan organised a charity album, "Lullabies With A Difference", for PACES ( for children with cerebral palsy ) which featured contributions from Midge Ure, Mark Knopfler and Tina Turner among others. By this point she was studying for an Open University degree in History.
It was another five years before her next proper album "Lovers Speak" released on an independent label. Joan played everything on the album apart from the drum and brass parts. Although her voice shows signs of ageing, it's her strongest set for many years with "In These Times" and "Less Happy More Often" right up there with her best songs. Sadly , its lengthy gestation and the lack of promotion meant it stalled at number 77 . A compilation album made number 23 the same year. A live album recorded on the subsequent tour failed to chart when released the following year.
That was pretty much Joan's farewell to the mainstream. She's since recorded a trilogy of D.I.Y. albums - even the drummer had gone by the last one - in different genres , blues ( "Into The Blues ", 2007 ) guitar rock ( "This Charming Life", 2010 ) and jazz ( "Starlight", 2014 ) but sales have been minimal. In 2015 she embarked on her last major tour but promised to continue to record. The following year she wrote some new music for an all-female production of The Tempest . This was released digitally, her last recordings to date. She is now 67.
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