Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love
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Artist: Madeleine PeyrouxBrand: PEYROUX,MADELEINE
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-09-14
Music Label: Rounder / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- Dance Me To The End Of Love
- Don't Wait Too Long
- Don't Cry Baby
- You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
- Between The Bars
- No More
- Lonesome Road
- J'ai Deux Amours
- Weary Blues
- I'll Look Around
- Careless Love
- This Is Heaven To Me
Music reviews of Careless Love
Music Review: Very Promising
Rating: 4 Stars
The frequent comparison of Madeleine Peyroux's to Billie Holiday is unfair to both. First, because her talent extends beyond superficial mimicry, and second, because Peyroux's singing is comparable to so many other singers. As described below, I hear the sounds of Edith Piaf, Lena Horne, Peggy Lee, and Dinah Shore, and, to a lesser extent, Lauren Bacall and the elongated notes of k.d. lang. Peyroux shares some tonal similarities with Holiday, along with her famous high-low note bend. But Peyroux can't (and won't) rely on her Holiday-inspired sounds too much, or else she'd become an "act." Even David Sedaris does a great "Billy Holiday"--it's right on the money--but no one hails him as the next Lady Day. (Holiday's bent note is not what makes her arguably the greatest jazz singer ever: She had unique, perfect phrasing, and a potent tonality that mixes vulnerability, hurt, perseverance, and sexuality. Sometimes we can hear her entire life's progression in just a few phrases.)
Peyroux is not strictly a "jazz singer" anyway, she blends in pop and the sound of the French troubadors.
"Dance Me to the End of Love" (Leonard Cohen) is a great opener. She gives it a Django Reinhardt treatment, with an unusual jazz rhythm and raggedy instrumentals. (Peyroux has excellent accompaniment throughout the CD.) She swings the song with a slight teasing quality, but doesn't forget the melancholy. Peyroux's soft, slippery voice (with her low nasally tones and vocal drop-offs) are effective, but her strength is playing her cool voice off the jangly background. Towards the end, however, the effects are a bit forced. A muted trumpet might have improved `Dance Me'; still, it's one of her strongest performances. The arrangement recalls "To Have and Have Not, " with Lauren Bacall accompanying Hoagy Carmichael's piano.
Peyroux's sole composition, "Don't Wait Too Long," is also excellent. The lyrics urge people to take chances--good advice for Peyroux herself. She's at her best when going for her own sound. Peyroux is more playful and looser on this track. I love how she pronounces "learn" as "loin," a la John Fogarty. The gritty keyboards and sweet guitar solo raise this number above many of her contemporaries' efforts. "Don't Cry Baby" offers a roots sound, recorded like it's coming out of a 1930's Zenith. Still, there's a little too much Holiday. We need more sass and less sanctimony, more brass and less whining. At the break, the musicians introduce a bright piano solo that interplays with the organ. However, this is played too much as a "novelty" number; you don't feel the song so much as notice it. That's one area where Peyrouz could grow; another is her disengagement from the lyrics. Speaking of which, what were she and her producers thinking on Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You're Gone?" Sure, she's got the phrasing of Armstrong, and the clear sound and tones of Joni Mitchell and Dinah Shore, but nothing about the singing captures the lyrics. It's modernized and sanitized. The happy "just smile cause I'll be fine" attitude is unconvincing; it all sounds like a coffee ad.
On "Between the Bars," Peyroux sings some great Marilyn Monroe head tones, with the orchestration and pace of later-day k.d. lang. Happily, this sometimes ponderously slow number is a short one. The next song is forgettable. It's like a mix of all her other songs, homogenized beyond recognition, and then--the coup de grace--a Billie Holiday bend.
"Lonesome Road" benefits from a Hawaiian guitar and organ, but this potentially excellent vehicle is derailed by Peyroux's languorous style--she respects the song too much. If she's not going to sing it loud, then she at least needs to hold more tension in her voice. Although she acquits herself well here, she doesn't take the chances that the musicians do. "Deux Amours" (hey, quelle accent!) needs more guitar and banjo, but her voice is beautiful and lulling, and she has an Edith Piaf trill. "Weary Blues" recalls "Summertime" and Lena Horne. Once again, Peyroux's untroubled delivery doesn't match the heartbreak of the lyrics. In contrast, her approach fits the music on "I'll Look Around," and makes it one of her best songs.
Summary
Peyroux is best when her singing matches the musical and lyrical tone, when she doesn't always sing it "straight," and when she lets the musicians complement her. She tends to play it safe. For example, track 12 could have been transformed into a great campy song (especially with those ding-dong background chimes and syrupy 30's arrangement); instead, it's once again a showcase for her voice. If she can be less precious and more giving (e.g., she needs more abandon against the gospel background of track 11), and if she doesn't rely quite as much on her signature insouciance, Madeleine Peyroux could be one of the most talented jazz/pop singers around.
Description of Careless Love
Boasting an enthralling voice many have regarded as reminiscent of Billie Holiday's, Madeleine Peyroux burst onto the music scene eight years ago with the extremely successful release of Dreamland. Championed by major publications such as The New York Times and Time Magazine, Peyroux was immediately recognized as a remarkably talented singer with a promising future. With the release of her long awaited follow-up album Careless Love, Peyroux's potential as an artist is truly realized. Her smoky voice and knowing delivery make each song her own, whether she's singing vintage tunes by W.C. Handy and Hank Williams, or contemporary songs by Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith. Producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin) weaves strands of acoustic blues, country ballads, classic jazz, torch songs and pop into a vibrant fabric that is both timeless and thoroughly up to date, with Peyroux's arresting vocals always front and center.When Madeleine Peyroux's debut, Dreamland, was released in 1996, its success threw her for a loop. She's taken eight years to create this follow-up, and, at age 30, she brings a confidence and resilience to this dozen-song set. She's able to move seamlessly between songs by writers as diverse as Elliott Smith and W.C. Handy, whose title track was popularized by Bessie Smith. Though American-born, Peyroux absorbed the language and culture of France growing up in Paris with her French-teacher mother. On her debut, she covered Edith Piaf, and this time out she wraps herself around "J'ai Deux Amours," which Josephine Baker sang to the Allied troops during World War II. --David Greenberger
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