Sleight of Hand is the tenth studio album by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, released on 12 May 1986 by A&M Records.

[3] To deal with this possibility, Armatrading decided to have a dry run, and record and produce samples that would eventually become Sleight of Hand.

Steve Greetham noted at the time that it was "very unusual" for Armatrading to ask members of her touring band to record with her, but said he and Alex White "were very pleased to be able to do it.

Armatrading then decided her recording equipment "wasn't good enough"[4] and had it upgraded with a 24-track tape machine and better musical instruments.

From January 1986, she drafted in Mark Wallis to engineer the new album and she and the band re-recorded, calling in session musicians to do some overdubs, and asking guitarist Eddie Golga to play on one track – "Laurel and the Rose".

"Jesse" is also based on a film script, though in an interview in 1988 with broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, Armatrading stated that she came to "hate" the song.

[13] In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Dave Connolly referred to Sleight of Hand as "a well crafted album [with] uncluttered production [and] expressiveness and energy", singling out the tracks "Russian Roulette", "Don Juan" and "Laurel and the Rose" for special mention, and giving the album a rating of 3 out of 5 stars.

Bassist Steve Greetham and drummer Geoff Dugmore, who played on the album, were invited to tour with Armatrading, but declined.

The feeling at the time was, according to Greetham,[16] that Armatrading had reached a low point, she'd been pushing herself too hard and her albums weren't selling as well as they used to.

[16] She bought a stud farm near Hindhead in Surrey as a business venture in case she could no longer make a living from music[17] and spent the rest of her time in the garden, or sleeping and watching TV.