Saturday, June 09, 2007

Madeleine Peyroux - Dreamland

Bf gave me Madeleine Peyroux's Dreamland for my birthday. This is her first album - proceeding her breakthrough CD Careless Love by 8 years.

It's every bit as dreamy as Careless Love, with the exception of the title track (a contemporary arrangement which I found jarring after the nine songs which proceed it), which unlike the other songs penned by Peyroux ("Hey Sweet Man", and "Always a Use")for the album, just feels wrong for the mood of the album.

I was very curious to hear her version of "Walkin' After Midnight", as I'm a Patsy Cline fan - nothing earth shattering, but a solid rendition.

"Was I?" is a really fun song - I'd heard her perform this on some radio show and then forgotten about it - it is impossible not to smile while listening to this one.

An Edith Piaf song (and the US/Germany title of the new Piaf biopic) "La Vie en Rose" - is a beautiful tune.

The album is rounded out by two Bessie Smith songs, which are really simply arranged, just vocals and piano or guitar.

The twelve short songs (album totals just shy of 40 minutes) are very enjoyable, with a good mix of styles (I'm sure even "Dreamland" will grow on me a little) - I will be listening to this CD a lot in the next several weeks, I'm sure.


Her website is all flash, so I can't link to specific pages, but you can sample songs from all three of her albums. She's headlining the Jazz fest in Madison tonight. We aren't going - I think I'll just bring the album over to his place tonight and we can have a listening party.

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