Vinyl Record
Imelda May - Love Tattoo
Imelda May - Love Tattoo on LP vinyl. A 2008 record available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel, Ireland.
LP ยท 2008
Available from Kilmorna Collection in Listowel.
Buyer notes: 2008 LP, currently available from the Kilmorna Collection vinyl shelf. Pay for pickup in Listowel or ship within Ireland for EUR 5.50.
Love Tattoo is the Imelda May record where vintage language turns into a living, sharp-edged calling card. Released in 2008, it introduced a much wider audience to her blend of rockabilly, jazz swing, blues bite and Dublin-born personality, but the album does not feel like a museum exercise. May writes and performs as someone who knows the grammar of early rock and roll, double bass snap, burlesque brass and smoky torch-song phrasing, then pushes it with enough modern nerve to avoid costume drama. Johnny Got a Boom Boom is the ignition point, all bass throb and rhythmic swagger. Big Bad Handsome Man turns charm into a strut. Meet You at the Moon and Falling in Love with You Again show that the record can soften without losing shape, while It's Your Voodoo Working and Watcha Gonna Do keep the bluesy edge close. The appeal is not only vocal power, though May has plenty of that. It is conviction. Love Tattoo sounds like a band playing a room, with arrangements that leave space for voice, guitar, upright bass, piano, brass and drums to hit cleanly. The record's style is retro in vocabulary, but present-tense in attitude.
Love Tattoo matters because it helped bring rockabilly and jump-blues energy back into mainstream Irish and UK pop conversation without sanding off the bite. May's performance on the album connects roots scholarship with showmanship, making the old forms feel usable rather than quaint. It also established the persona that would carry her into broader recognition: glamorous, tough, witty and musically serious.
This is the Imelda May title to own when the shelf needs the moment her sound fully announced itself. It works well for collectors who love Wanda Jackson, early rock and roll, bluesy vocal records and modern artists with real roots knowledge. The album has enough immediate singles to grab casual listeners, but the full sequence proves the band and writing are deeper than a novelty revival.
Modern rockabilly and jump-blues with upright bass snap, smoky jazz touches, brass flashes, sharp guitar and a voice that moves from swagger to torch-song poise.
Recommended for: Collectors of modern Irish albums with roots-music bite; Fans of rockabilly, jump blues and theatrical vocal swagger; Listeners who want retro influence without polite revivalism.
What year was Love Tattoo released? Love Tattoo was released in 2008. Which songs define Love Tattoo? Johnny Got a Boom Boom, Big Bad Handsome Man, Love Tattoo, Meet You at the Moon and It's Your Voodoo Working show the album's range. Is Love Tattoo mainly a rockabilly record? Rockabilly is central, but the album also draws on blues, jazz swing, torch-song drama and early rock and roll.