Madeleine Peyroux

Imagine sitting in a coffee shop, looking out over a sea of deep blues and cyans and a glittering sun. The small white caps come tumbling to the shore to the beat of Ms. Madeleine Peyroux's songs. It's really incredible to listen to Peyroux's retro voice over breezy melodies-close your eyes and you'd think that you're on a beach somewhere very far away. Very far away.

For those of you who aren't acquainted with Peyroux, she actually had one of her songs-"Don't Wait Too Long"-from the album Careless Love (2004) on a Dockers San Francisco commercial. But that only disparages her talents. Peyroux has got these Billie Holliday type vocals, that floats and flutters on the surface of your ears. She also possesses and amazing ability to reinterpret old classics, and Half the Perfect World (coming out September 12)is no exception. Nearly two-thirds of the album are covers of old songs: "River" is originally a Joni Mitchell song, a relaxed version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" from Midnight Cowboy,and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" from Modern Times, among others. But what's even more surprising are the four tracks that Peyroux wrote/co-wrote. "I'm All Right" makes great use of a jazzy organ while "A Little Bit" seems to be the lead single that features the smart lyric, "I don't want all of it, all I need is a little bit". Peyroux is perfect on "A Little Bit", as she perfectly melds (I used this word two posts ago, didn't I?) her classic voice with a stringed out riff that-as Tom Tucker from Family Guy would say-is just really great.

Buy Half the Perfect World.

Listen to "Don't Wait Too Long" from Careless Love.
Listen to "A Little Bit".