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Madeleine Peyroux
Careless Love
(Rounder)
Madeleine Peyroux & William Galison
Got You on My Mind
(Waking Up)
First Appeared in The Music Box, March 2005, Volume 12, #3
Written by T.J. Simon
Madeleine Peyroux sounds exactly like Billie Holiday, and she performs
popular jazz music for people who really aren’t into jazz music. Dividing her
time between New York and Paris, she keeps her compositions steeped in the two
cultures’ visions of vocal jazz and lush pop with equal lyrical adeptness in
both French and English. Recently, Peyroux delivered two winning albums
competing for shelf space — a solo outing titled Careless Love and a
joint effort with jazz harmonica maestro William Galison titled Got You on My
Mind.
On Careless Love, Peyroux fights for a piece of the jazz-pop pie
currently dominated by Norah Jones. The good news is that Peyroux is ten times
the singer that Jones is, but that didn’t dissuade her from hedging her bets by
hiring Jones’ guitarist and primary songwriter Jesse Harris to co-write the
disc’s blues-influenced original Don’t Wait Too Long. Like Jones, she
also chose to give Hank Williams a smooth jazz makeover with her
reinterpretation of Weary Blues. Piano ace Larry Goldings dominates the
album’s instrumentation with his elegant arrangements, and the lion’s share of
the collection is filled with enjoyable covers that range from Bob Dylan’s
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go to Leonard Cohen’s Dance Me to
the End of Love. Only J’ai Deaux Amours features Peyroux’s flawless
French singing, and it proves to be an album highlight on a outing that is
filled with nothing but bright spots.
As for Got You on My Mind, Peyroux utilizes her gorgeous voice to
reinterpret several classics that were produced and arranged by William Galison,
who has provided his harmonica to a wide-ranging array of past projects,
including the theme to Sesame Street. The album also features another
interpretation of J’ai Deaux Amours as well as a Paris-flavored
instrumental Flambee Montalbanese. The disc’s best vocal performances
have Peyroux interpreting Al Jolson’s Back in Your Own Back Yard and an
up-tempo version of the standard The Way You Look Tonight. When Galison
sings on Shoulda Known and Heaven Help Us All, his voice recalls
Paul Simon, but it’s clear that his greatest strength, as evidenced by his
re-working of John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, is his ability to play
harmonica. In short, Got You On My Mind is a romantic collaboration
between two immensely-talented artists who will hopefully join forces again in
the future.
Got You On My Mind is also generously-packaged with liner notes from
Galison, detailing how each song came to fruition. There is, however, one thing
that soiled the album, and it’s probably the record label’s fault. Both the
promotional material and the disc’s packaging loudly tout Carly Simon’s
contribution to the project. Although the digipak screams, "featuring CARLY
SIMON as the scorpion," the legendary songstress only adds one, unrecognizable,
spoken-word line to the track Shoulda Known. That’s right, she doesn’t
sing a note. The touting of Simon’s minimal contribution is clearly a ploy to
defraud her sizable and loyal fan base. It’s truly shameful, and it’s a scummy
tactic that is unbecoming an album that clearly is strong enough to stand upon
its own considerable merits.
Careless Love -  ½
Got You on My Mind -
Careless Love is available
from Amazon. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
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Got You on My Mind is available
from Amazon. To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
Click Here!
For UK orders, please
Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2005
The Music Box
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