208
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #152,259 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
This Is Heaven To Me
How true! Musicians take a lifetime to prepare their first CD, then are expected to have an equally brilliant release in a few months. The process rarely works. Rarer is an artist so dedicated to quality that eight years passes between a highly acclaimed debut and sophmore CD. Even more unusual is the artist who scores perfectly both times, so far apart.
Then again, nobody with ears could call Madeleine Peyroux typical. She's a genuine gem amongst the clutter composing today's musical spectrum. Thank goodness she's faithful to her remarkable vocal stylings.
Talent aplenty, Ms. Peyroux's voice and delivery strike your memory in familiar ways. Comparison to world-famous blues and jazz females are tempting, perhaps justified. Nonetheless, Ms. Peyroux's never derivative but rather refreshingly comfortable in an all-new manner.
Ms. Peyroux also has smarts enough to work superb material. She easily intreprets standards by such great tunesmiths as Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Hank Williams, and W.C. Handy into her own repetoire. She ain't a bad writer herself.
Ms. Peyroux invested time wisely since her 1996 introduction. Hope we don't have to wait as long for her next CD, but surely I'm willing to if it takes that long for another perfect CD.
The title of the closing track precisely sums it all up: "This Is Heaven To Me!"
