It is not often that Ace puts out a new recording, but when it's a Millie Jackson record, how can we refuse? Expressing herself explicitly has never been a problem and here Millie blends contemporary technology and styling with traditional soul values in a way that few of her generation have managed to do. Maybe your vicar wouldn't like it - but if you like Millie, you most definitely will.

We're extremely pleased to welcome back a familiar face and voice to Ace this month, with the release of a brand new album - her first in some years - from the wonderful Millie Jackson. It may have been relatively quiet of late on her recording front, but the soul legend has been keeping extremely busy in recent times with radio DJ'ing and stagework. She's now returned to the studios, to meet the 21st century head on with a record that may well be Not For Church Folk" but which nevertheless most definitely is for all of us who've enjoyed Ms Jackson's work in the past.

2001-style instrumentation, the vocal presence of New Skool rapper Da Brat and late 80s hip hop queen Shante and the usual saucy language notwithstanding - let's face it, a Millie Jackson album wouldn't be a Millie Jackson album without the odd "Gosh" or "Jeepers" creeping into its lyrical content! - "Not For Church Folk" is vintage Millie. The downtempo cuts, of which there are several, are at least on a par with the best of the lady's vintage Spring recordings. And the dance cuts are as philthily phunky as you'd expect from a woman for whom expressing herself explicitly has never been a problem. As she herself reminds us on a few of these cuts, Millie may be growing older but she ain't growing older gracefully and neither would she want to!

With "Not For Church Folk", Millie blends contemporary technology and styling with traditional soul values in a way that few of her generation have managed to do. Maybe your vicar wouldn't like it - but if you like Millie, you most definitely will.

By Tony Rounce