Madeleine Peyroux 'Half The Perfect World' album

Madeleine Peyroux doesn’t simply interpret songs, she possesses them…and vice versa. Peyroux is either an old soul or was “born with it” (depending on one’s theory about the flashpoint of artistry); that became apparent in 1996, with the release of her debut album, Dreamland, a remarkably knowing work in which the then-22-year-old singer brought commensurate insightfulness to material associated with Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Patsy Cline. Her decision to cover Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose” reflected the decade that the Georgia-born Peyroux had spent living in Paris, from ages 13 to 22. In the ten years since then, she has brought a wealth of life experience to her natural affinities, first manifested on the long-in-coming sophomore album Careless Love and brought to fruition on Peyroux’s new album Half the Perfect World.

Half the Perfect World, once again impeccably produced by Larry Klein, serves as both complement and counterpoint to its predecessor, 2004’s Careless Love, which drew raves across the board and sold more than a million copies worldwide. “This record is different from Careless Love in the sense that there’s a unison of joy on it,” Peyroux says of the new album. “It’s pushing certain boundaries for me.”

Whereas much of her earlier work drew on writers and singers from the first half of the twentieth century, the bulk of Half the Perfect World focuses on artists and writers from the lifetime of the 32-year-old artist, including Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Fred Neil and Joni Mitchell. Peyroux’s knack for choosing the perfect song is again key to the album’s emotional impact, but her continued growth as a songwriter is equally important, and the new album’s four original tunes more than hold their own, raising the groove quotient in the process. Peyroux, Larry Klein and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker collaborated to write the album’s opening track, the wonderfully catchy “I’m All Right.” The album’s other original songs reunite the writing team of Peyroux, Jesse Harris and Larry Klein (who penned the single “Don’t Wait Too Long” on Careless Love). Rounding out the new album are Peyroux’s interpretations of standards from Johnny Mercer, Charlie Chaplin and Serge Gainsbourg.

“These love songs all come from an extremely personal place,” says Peyroux of the new album, “and therefore allowed me a most intimate reading.” Indeed, Peyroux’s vocals bring such insight into both covers and originals on Half the Perfect World that a theme emerges – many of the album’s songs explore romantic relationships from a distinctly female perspective.

Along with revealing her artistic growth, the new album also reflects Peyroux’s increased confidence, resulting in part from the synergy she’d achieved on Careless Love with Larry Klein and the core players – guitarist Dean Parks, bassist David Piltch and drummer Jay Bellerose. They’re joined on Half the Perfect World by keyboardist Sam Yahel, drummer Scott Amedola and a stellar cast of supporting musicians which include saxophonist Gary Foster, pedal steel player Greg Leisz, Till Bronner on trumpet and Larry Goldings on celeste. “This record has me taking more leaps in every song, partly because these are different kinds of songs than the songs I’ve previously covered,” Peyroux says. “Working with a team that I’ve already worked with, and knowing how amazing they are, added enough depth so that we could take these leaps. The depth of collaboration and self-expression among all of us is what defines the essence of this album.”

The album is full of sublime moments. Sung by a woman from a man’s point of view, “Blue Alert” (written by Leonard Cohen and Anjani Thomas) is psychologically complex and erotically charged. This intertwining of genders “adds a depth to the song that wouldn’t be there otherwise,” Peyroux says. The blending of Peyroux and k.d. lang’s distinctive voices on “River” puts an entirely new spin on the Joni Mitchell classic. And Peyroux’s vocal on Chaplin’s “Smile” is reflected by Till Bronner’s muted trumpet, forming the musical equivalent of a shadow thrown by a streetlamp. Highlighting two of the album’s songs, the Serge Gainsbourg standard “La Javanaise” and the original composition “Once in a While,” are poignant string quartet arrangements courtesy of Mark Orton.

Half the Perfect World is an album in which time stands still. It is filled with performances in which the spaces between the sounds are as crucial to the effect as the sounds themselves. As Peyroux puts it, “Silence is not just an absence of sound.” Klein echoes this sentiment in discussing Peyroux’s particular gift: “She gets at this almost indescribable, ineffable kind of poetry. You see it in Picasso’s work; you hear it in Miles’ playing. I’d say 90 percent of what she does is implied.”

Connoisseurs of eloquent, understated delivery now have a core artist in Madeleine Peyroux, and while Half the Perfect World provides dramatic evidence of her rarefied power of suggestion, it’s also hard to avoid the impression that this album is merely the tip of the iceberg.

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Madeleine Peyroux - Half The Perfect World