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Madeleine Peyroux - Half
The Perfect World (Rounder)
Released: September 12, 2006
Madeleine Peyroux, meet Billie Holiday. Yeah, I get it. But there's a
difference. I think the music comes from a different place with Ms.
Peyroux. That doesn't make it bad, far from it. It's just not like
Billie Holiday. It's different.
Enjoying this music is, I think, an acquired taste. Starbucks has pushed
her last two discs hard - both in their stores, and on their XM Radio
channel. My son says she can't carry a tune very well.
But there's something about someone who can take the bubbly "Smile," that
old Charlie Chaplin chestnut, do it in a blues style, and rip your heart
out in the process.
That, folks, isn't traditional blues in the traditional sense. But it's
blues.
Same with that Fred Neil/Harry Nilsson "Midnight Cowboy" tune,
"Everybody's Talkin'."
Now. My problem with Ms. Peyroux is that it's all so gut-wrenchingly blue.
I'll throw most any of these into a playlist. But the whole album is a
little too much.
Joni Mitchell's "River" is a duet with k.d. Lang. It's another highlight;
and so is the Tom Waits classic, "(Looking For) The Heart of Saturday
Night."
Heck, the whole disc is good. But as a whole, it wanders just a little too
much. And when it's all over, you just want to cry.
Recommended...but not all at once.
Three
microphones (out of four)
- Doug Boynton
(9/27/06) |
