Madeleine Peyroux "Careless Love" 2004****

Madeleine Peyroux was born in Athens, Georgia and grew up in New York and Paris. She started singing in her teens and gathered rave reviews for her debut album "Dreamland" in 1996. Her voice bears an uncanny resemblance to that of Billie Holiday and the public (and record company) immediately started asking for more. Her response was to dissappear completely from view for 7 years. It transpired that she had gone back to the scene of her youth, busking on the streets of Paris and working on her singing away from pressure. This album was her comeback and found universal acceptance from jazz and pop fans alike. The voice hasn't changed and the similarity can be eerie, but she's clearly not haunted by any ghosts. The songs are not strictly jazz, for example Leonard Cohen's magnificent "Dance Me To The End Of Love" is performed in an almost cabaret fashion, faster and more playful but also less sensual than the original. Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is countryish while country legend Hank Williams' "Weary Blues" is given a more straight jazz spin. "Careless Blues" is blues with some nice groovy organ and Elliott Smith's alt.country "Between The Bars" gets a suitably melancholic treatment. Not that the album is a rollercoaster drifting from one genre to the other. Far from that, it's really coherent with a distinctive sound. All the above are subtle strokes coloring each song slightly differently. Josephine Baker's "J'Ai Deux Amours" retains its feline sensuality although it's a love song to a city rather than a person. Her own composition "Don't Wait Too Long" is one of the highlights and showcases a talent for composition in addition to singing. Listening to this album is always a delight and I play it often, much more often than her other 2 (or 3?) albums I own.

***** for Dance Me To The End Of Love 

**** for Don't Wait Too Long, J'Ai Deux Amours, Weary Blues, Careless Love

*** for Don't Cry Baby, You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go, Between The Bars, Lonesome Road, This Is Heaven To Me

** for No More, I'll Look Around