Features Disc of the day
Madeleine Peyroux
Careless Love
(Rounder/UCJ, 2004)
The lady sings the blues... convincingly.
Onstage, Georgia-born Madeleine Peyroux is both an effortless and strangely reluctant performer, often appearing ill at ease with the very concept of an audience. For someone who spent her teenage years busking on the Parisian Metro, this is a strange paradox. Peyroux, however, has a history of reticence. Having returned to New York in 1993, she began singing in a jazz club and drawing comparisons to Billie Holiday thanks to her languid delivery and phrasing. A few months later she was offered a deal by Atlantic's Yves Beauvais, and cut her debut album, Dreamland, with Tom Waits' producer Greg Cohen and guitarist Marc Ribot two years later. Then, after soliciting praise from all quarters and touring as part of the Lilith Fair package, she simply walked away from the music business. Understandably, her return eight years later with Careless Love was not met with a huge fanfare. Such is the album's startling power, however, that, in the two years that followed, it spent 183 weeks on the Billboard chart while also climbing into the UK Top 10, feats fuelled by word-of-mouth rather than an orchestrated media campaign.
At first glance, sceptics may be put off by the MOR sleeve, and in truth, the shot of a stylised, barefoot Peyroux sitting in the middle of deserted street with a strategically placed bouquet of flowers is perhaps better suited to the Katie Meluas of this world. Disregard the sleeve and dive into the music, however, and Peyroux reveals herself to be a remarkable interpreter of classic song, translating a string of cover versions into modern day blues laments. A heartbreaking version of Leonard Cohen's death camp meditation, opens the proceedings, immediately setting the tone for the mixture of unfettered melancholia and lingering hope that follows. Peyroux's choice of material is perfectly suited to her languorous delivery, Elliott Smith's drinking song Between The Bars and Hank Williams's Weary Blues both luxuriating in resignation and loss. Elsewhere, her lived-in version of Dylan's You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go is one of the finest covers of the man's work you are likely to hear. "I do sort of sit in awe of the power of music and worry that it's not going to touch people," she told MOJO at the time. With sales of Careless Love well over the million mark she need not have worried. Meanwhile, her records continue to impress with their bashful, understated charm and Peyroux's ever-increasing compositional confidence.
Phil Alexander
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 09/12/2009
Further Listening
Billie Holiday - Lady In Satin (Columbia, 1958)
Elliott Smith - Either/Or (Domino, 1997)
Madeleine Peyroux - Half A Perfect World (Rounder/UCJ, 2006)
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