Album review: JUDIE TZUKE – Now Or Never

December 23rd, 2025 by GRTR! HQ

Big Moon Records/www.tzuke.com [Release date 01.12.25]

According to her liner note: “This album’s a bit noisier in places…Best played loud” When the opening track of Judie Tzuke’s latest album blasts out – surprisingly – I was reminded of that fairly short period in the early 1980s when she went pretty much full on rock. To be honest it’s a style that didn’t always sit easy with her vocal range but it did produce some memorable pieces.

Since that time, as readers of our recent GRTR! Greats feature will know, she has produced a continuous stream of excellent albums unencumbered by record label expectation and that vocal and overall approach has softened, matured, and any listener resistance is now futile.

On this latest offering as ever she is joined by the usual empathic bunch of musicians, including regulars Ben Mark and David P. Goodes plus of course the ever-present support of her daughter Bailey on backing vocals and more prominently on the excellent duet ‘Shameless’.

This is one of Tzuke’s great strengths – the ability to work with a wide range of musicians and to foster mutual inspiration, whilst keeping a close ear on musical trends. But always remaining distinctly Jude.

The over-riding vibe of this album is quality, it’s a relatively short – and some would say frustratingly short – update for fans (and with one track revisited). As ever, it’s the quality of the songs that shine through as much as Jude’s vocal from that rousing opener ‘All That Matters’ to the more typical fragility exposed on ‘Fading’ and the splendid ‘Strange Days’ .

The “secret weapons” appear to be the continuity of one-time hubby Paul Muggleton who has again co-produced plus original collaborator Mike Paxman on ‘Keep The Faith’. And, wait a minute, early band member Rhino Edwards (later with Status Quo) appears on four tracks. It’s like transposing the glam and hope of the early days to a more knowing, realistic but contemporary vibe now weathered by life and living.

This is genuinely an album to return to, demanding repeat play on a regular basis. We know that Jude’s gone through some trials and tribulations in recent years but ‘Now Or Never’ shows an artist still at the top of her game. It’s fifty years since her first tentative forays with Paxman in the folk clubs, and fifty years on ‘Now Or Never’ is a marvellous addition to a musical journey of greatness. *****

Review by David Randall

GRTR! Greats (October 2025)

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Power Plays w/c 1 December 2025

We feature all the artists selected in this sequence in 2025.

Featured Albums w/c 1 December 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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