Hour Before The Dawn

Challenging Kate Bush and Guns N' Roses for the title of "lengthiest gap between albums," Now Is the Hour is the first offering from American powerhouse Jennifer Rush since 1998's collaboration with the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, Classics, and her first set of new material since 1997's Credo. Having taken 12 years off to raise her daughter, Rush has assembled a crack team of established European-based hitmakers including Swede Jörgen Eloffson (Leona Lewis, Britney Spears), American country singer/songwriter Sharon Vaughn (Alcazar), and soul-pop songstress Natasha Bedingfield on a record that retains the epic power balladry of her mid-'80s heyday while also pursuing a previously unexplored dance-pop direction similar to Cher's fifty-something disco diva re-invention a decade earlier.