Madeleine Peyroux
Dreamland

THE REVIEW

Ahhh, what beauty and enjoyment it is to occasionally listen to albums like this "Dreamland" by Madeleine Peyroux from the distant 1996.

An album deeply blues but with jazz and pop nuances, sung in a velvety and incredibly sexy manner by Madeleine Peyroux, often referred to as the "living heir of Billie Holiday" for her tone, richness, and quality of interpretation. An album from 1996, as we were saying, but one that seems to belong to about 50 years prior if not for the care in sound and recordings that betray its origin.

Madeleine spent her youth in Georgia singing in the various smoky and alcohol-laden pubs of the city, and it is in one such place that, according to legend, she was discovered by Yves Beauvais, a talent scout from Atlantic Records passing through. The talented Yves would go on to co-produce this splendid gem of jazz and soft-blues (!?), enriched by contributions from Marc Ribot (on guitars and dobro) and Greg Cohen (on bass), longtime collaborators of the more famous Tom Waits. And our minds are indeed transported back to the early 'crooner period' of the Californian singer's career when he sang melancholic and desperate blues in the seediest venues of American provinces.

One is thus transported, without hesitation, by these 12 songs interpreted in, dare I say, a 'classical' yet pathos-rich manner, refreshing 40s/50s sounds with an interpretative class and vocal tone that even today, has very few equals in Europe.
A 'timid debut' performed without overdoing it, becoming at the same time both its limitation and virtue, alternating original material with classic standards of the genre (most notably the lazy and carefree blues of 'Walking After Midnight', the legendary 'La Vie en Rose' with violin, accordion, and guitar accompaniment, or the stunning 'Reckless Blues' by Bessie Smith with only piano accompanying Madeleine's splendid voice, which seldom makes one miss the original).

An album listened to at least 15 times while traveling by car through the roads of Greece (a very rare event for my omnivorous and never satisfied ears) and one that has yet to tire me out. An album terribly 'not current', 'not commercial', 'not tied to trends, current events, or any kind of chart' — an album as fascinating as few others and 'pleasantly light' that will take 8 long years before 'passing the baton' to the subsequent "Careless Love" of last year, also beautiful and already reviewed here.

An album recommended for this very sensation of 'timelessness' that rightfully places it among my 'evergreens' of all time.