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Eleanor McEvoy’s latest record typically strikes out in a new direction. Love Must Be Tough is an album that explores the ebb and flow of romance through distinctly non-rose tinted glasses. These are not songs of innocence but songs of experience. McEvoy is renowned for bucking the norm, consistently defying categorisation. Reflecting on her six previous offerings, a distinct pattern emerges. It’s quite simple really – she weaves between musical styles as a rite of passage, her life, thoughts, loves and losses recorded over fifteen years. A musician who records consistently over such an extended period is simply registering their walk through life. Listening back on her records is akin to an evening spent reminiscing over dog-eared family photo albums. Her 1993 self-titled debut release was her bed-sit album, first loves, first disappointments, the singer songwriter emerging.1996’s What’s Following Me was McEvoy’s rebellious album, a spiky grunge laden affair that shuddered and spat at the world. Snapshots in 1998 saw McEvoy shirk off the introspection and begin to explore the world outside her own bubble. The 2002 album Yola showcased McEvoy gaining confidence as both woman and artist, stripping away the musical machinery and laying out her inherent musical talents, raw and bare. Early Hours followed three years later, a laid back McEvoy emerging with a sonorous 4am album. Her last release, 2006’s Out There, depicted the quirky, feisty, tongue in cheek McEvoy. And now Love Must Be Tough, where McEvoy interprets songs that have moved her for many years. Love Must Be Tough is a collection of tracks, typically sung by men about women (apart from the track Hands Off Him). When sung by a woman, with the minimum of alteration to the lyrics, the words breathe a different life and tell a new story. McEvoy’s mischievous side revels in the gender juxtaposition. Recorded with The South King Street Band, with arrangements by Peter Beckett, Love Must Be Tough kicks off with the Rolling Stone’s Mother’s Little Helper. Opening the album with the line ‘What a drag it is getting old’ sets the tone of the entire collection. McEvoy’s interpretation is more Kurt Weil than Mick Jagger and sung by a woman, the song spins from the original put down to sheer frustration. The title track, Love Must Be Tough, written by McEvoy and US legend Johnny Rivers during a late night songwriting session in Killarney, is a nugget of West Coast Americana, a couple who’s love has been dragged through the dirt, but you put up and get on with it. The lead single Old, New, Borrowed and Blue, penned by McEvoy and longtime friend Dave Rotheray (Beautiful South/Homespun) is a twist on the jaundiced over optimism of the standard wedding song. Another track by the duo, The Night May Still Be Young, But I Am Not sets the bar scene – she wouldn’t have given the guy a second glance not so long ago, but a few drinks in and she realises she’s not getting any younger… Terry Allen’s Lubbock Woman portrays the character at the heart of this collection – the make up, the hair, the unrealistic hopes, the almost predictable disappointment, but she’s proud of who she is and she’ll always keep going. On Sly Stone’s If You Want Me To Stay, McEvoy strips his most biting lyric back to a ‘work-song’. Roll Out Better Days is McEvoy’s own composition, inspired by a recording session where McEvoy asked her engineer to ‘Roll out the treble, ride up the bass, roll back the last take and throw it away’- in other words ‘scrap what we’ve just done and start again’. The line seemed poignant in the context of the album’s theme. Hands Off Him, a 1955 hit by Priscilla Bowman, the only original female vocal on the album, is a straightforward ‘the man is mine’ warning shot across the bows of any usurper! This lady ain’t takin’ no chances! The Rodney Crowell classic Shame On The Moon, is a magnificent story of shirking responsibility for a wrongdoing. Easy In Love, another composition by McEvoy, this time with Brad Parker, is an optimistic roll call of some of the world’s best -known romantic couples. He Never Spoke Spanish To Me, the Butch Hancock classic, evokes hot moonlit nights, somewhere near the border, a Mariachi band playing in the background, yearning and regret. The album comes to a close with Nick Lowe’s I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock ‘n Roll). The song takes on a whole new meaning when heard through McEvoy’s observations of how the bride used to be. So which McEvoy is revealed in Love Must Be Tough, her seventh record in fifteen years? Perhaps the answer to that lies in her yet to be recorded eight album.

Hot Press 'Shame On The Moon'/'The Night May Still Be Young But I Am Not'. A great uncluttered and uncontrived version of a loose and louche Rodney Crowell song, with an equally cool, homemade classic as the B-side: "Give me your best line and I'll give you my best shot," croons Eleanor's jaded but defiant voice. "The night my still be young, but I am not" Great stuff.

Truck & Driver “Album of the Month” 5 out of 5 stars. If you’ve yet to come across Eleanor McEvoy, this superb blend of covers and originals is the perfect place to start. Like a female Van Morrison, she swings from the Stones to Dave Edmunds and from country to jazz and the most booze-sodden balladry since the Pogues. Tough-skinned and soft-hearted, or maybe the other way round, McEvoy sounds like the sort of woman who might greet you with a bottle of red one night and a rolling pin the next.

Word Magazine Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy pulls off a bit of a first by covering songs originally sung and written by men. The songs range from Jagger and Richard’s “Mother’s Little Helper” through Sly Stone’s “If You Want Me To Stay” to the gem “Shame On The Moon” from the pen of country songwriter Rodney Crowell.

BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends Clive Anderson declares Eleanor McEvoy’s live performance of ‘Old New Borrowed and Blue’ “Excellent”

BBC Radio 2 Terry Wogan Terry comments after playing ‘Old New Borrowed and Blue.’ “Yeah we love that, that’s a good one huh? We”ll hear more of that again.”

Irish Times Launching her latest collection with a surprisingly jazz-tinged cover of the Jagger/Richards Mother's Little Helper, Eleanor McEvoy goes against the grain yet again. That unmistakeable voice, that determinedly undiluted accent trip-hop across the rooftops of self-penned, pitch-perfect pop (Love Must Be Tough) and then lollop across a songbook that's littered with gemstones borrowed from Butch Hancock, Rodney Crowell, Nick Lowe and Terry Allen. McEvoy's facility with everything from Tex-Mex country (He Never Spoke Spanish to Me) to the straight up three-chord trickery of I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock 'n Roll) is a timely reminder of what sets a musician apart: a hunger for exploration and a deep-seated talent for exploring the darker corners of both music and life.