Bloggerhythms

Madeleine Peyroux released her sophomore album, Careless Love , a whopping eight years after her stellar debut. Why it took so long is unknown but when there is that large of a gap betweens records we should expect the follow up to be very, very good. Fortunately, it is. Just as they did on Dreamland , Peyroux's vocals generate Billie Holiday comparisons but unlike like Lady Day, the former street busker's reach extends far beyond the realm of jazz. Careless Love has only one self-penned tune and that allows Peyroux to record some excellent cover material. The set starts off with a bang. She uses Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me To The End Of Love" to prove how well she can interpret somebody else's work. Her reading of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go," originally found on his legendary Blood On The Tracks LP, is superb. She also covers Hank Williams, as well as the title cut by W. C. Handy, and an old jazz standard ...

Both Of Madeleine Peyroux’s first two CDs, Dreamland (1996) and Careless Love (2004), benefited from great song selection as well as inspired performances. Unfortunately, while the singer still possesses great taste in chosing songs for Half The Perfect World her lackluster performance makes her third album not even half perfect. Maybe I’m too familiar with Frank Sinatra’s classic, swinging arrangement of "Summer Wind" to fully appreciate Peyroux’s version that just sounds tired. Even less successful is her interpretation of Harry Nilsson’s "Everybody’s Talking." While her Sinatra cover is just lethargic Nilsson's song sounds like Peyroux is singing in bed under heavy sedation. Joni Mitchell’s "River" is a duet featuring K. D. Lang on a very slow paced dirge in which Lang totally dominates her hostess. This track would fit better on Lang's Hymns of the 49th Parallel , especially when you consider that the composer is Canadian. Only on Leonard C...