Bare Bones(Rounder Records)
Madeleine Peyroux
Released March 24, 2009
The Guardian Highest Rated Jazz Albums of All Time
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About:
Madeleine Peyroux’s fourth album isn’t the normal mix of standards (contemporary or traditional) with a few songs of her own composing; each of the 11 tracks is a new song written by Peyroux, usually in tandem with producer Larry Klein or a guest. Still, she appears in her usual relaxed setting, with a small group perfectly poised to translate her languorous vocals into perfect accompaniment — organist Larry Goldings, pianist Jim Beard, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, plus producer Klein on bass, Dean Parks on guitar, and Carla Kihlstedt on violin.Peyroux is not only a great interpreter of songs, she also knows how to write in what might be called the old-fashioned way, the type of song with a universal, direct, emotional power that became a rarity during the late 20th century.
Track Listing:
1. Instead (Julian Coryell / Madeleine Peyroux) 5:13
2. Bare Bones (Walter Becker / Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 3:26
3. Damn The Circumstances (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 4:37
4. River Of Tears (Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 5:21
5. You Can’t Do Me (Walter Becker / Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 5:04
6. Love And Treachery (Joe Henry / Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 4:19
7. Our Lady Of Pigalle (David Batteau / Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux) 5:28
8. Homeless Happiness (Julian Coryell / Madeleine Peyroux) 3:59
9. To Love You All Over Again (David Batteau / Madeleine Peyroux) 3:59
10. I Must Be Saved (Madeleine Peyroux) 4:45
11. Somethin’ Grand (Larry Klein / Madeleine Peyroux / Sean Wayland) 3:44
Personnel:
Madeleine Peyroux: vocals, acoustic guitar (1-4, 6-11)
Larry Klein: bass
Vinnie Colaiuta: drums, percussion (1, 5)
Dean Parks: electric guitar (1-5, 8, 9, 11), mandolin (2, 7), pedal steel guitar (2, 6)
Jim Beard: piano (1, 3, 5, 7-11), Wurlitzer piano (2-4, 6)
Larry Goldings: Hammond organ (2, 4-6, 10), organ (3, 7, 11)
Carla Kihlstedt: violin (4, 5, 9, 11), nyckelharpa (7)
Luciana Souza: backing vocals (5)
Rebecca Pidgeon: backing vocals (5)
Recorded at Henson Studios, Hollywood, CA and Market Street, Santa Monica, CA.
Produced by Larry Klein
Recorded and mixed by Helik Hadar
Assistant engineer: Nicolas Essig
Mastered by Bernie Grundman
Design: Carla Leighton
Photography: James Minchin
Review:
The empress of the jazzy, languid groove does what she has done on her two bestsellers (and her half-forgotten 1996 debut); purr intimately about life and the iniquities of love over retro backings of brushed drums and polite piano that evoke Billie Holiday.
There is one crucial difference; Peyroux is not singing other people’s songs. She wrote 10 numbers here with various foils, most often her habitual producer Larry Klein, and one on her own.
The effect is of a singer breaking cover to reveal herself as a full-blown artist. Peyroux has contributed songs to her previous albums, but there’s a soul-baring quality to Bare Bones, whose title was inspired by Buddhist writer Pema Chödrön. The latter’s When Things Fall Apart, Heartfelt Advice For Difficult Times could, indeed, serve as a subtitle for Bare Bones, which bears the unmistakable mark of a great break-up album.
In that respect the opener, Instead, is misleading – a piece of “think positive” cheeriness with a Fats Waller flavour. More defining are Damn the Circumstances and River of Tears, with their moods of small hours defeat, the latter reaching for the bottle to forget a man who could “drink the way a monk could pray”.
Better still is Love and Treachery, where Peyroux shows how much she’s learnt from singing Leonard Cohen. Set to edgy steel guitar and electric piano, it recognises her collusion in a failed affair – “all your love and treachery has ended up as mine”. Ouch.
Yet there is optimism amid the heartache. Homeless Happiness offers a glimpse of freedom. Our Lady of Pigalle, set under church walls, cleverly elides the eternal verities of sexual desire and the Madonna’s compassion. The endpiece Something Grand, written when Peyroux foresaw a Democratic White House, marries personal and political victories.
There’s the odd jarring note but Bare Bones remains a work of high class, deep feeling and, let’s not forget, magical singing.
Neil Spencer (The Guardian)
