Neil Spencer 

Madeleine Peyroux: Standing on the Rooftop –review

Since Madeleine Peyroux's last album in 2009, the retro-jazz crooner has evolved into a singular performer, writes Neil Spencer
  
  


The dusky, retro-jazz croon that made Madeleine Peyroux famous is still present, and there are crowd-pleasing covers of McCartney's "Martha My Dear" and Dylan's "I Threw it All Away", but her ambitions have evolved since 2009's self-penned Bare Bones. With Norah Jones's producer Craig Street in charge, there's an inventive edge to standouts such as the title track and her tender version of WH Auden's "Lay Your Sleeping Head", arranged by guitarist Marc Ribot. Peyroux's lyrics are by turns poetic (on, say, "Ophelia") and playful – "The Kind You Can't Afford", written with Bill Wyman, cocks a snook at a rich suitor. She has grown into an engaging, singular voice.

 

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