| | Madeleine Peyroux Half The Perfect World CD Madeleine Peyroux Discography of CDs
 (3 Customer Reviews)
Though dismissed by some critics as a Billie Holiday imitator, Madeleine Peyroux has her own distinctive approach to singing. The Lady Day comparisons are apt, and Peyroux's take on breezy, melancholic jazz and blues pushes a vintage button, but her albums are dressed up in enough contemporary style to make them fresh. HALF THE PERFECT WORLD (2006), for instance, is a deeply pleasurable listen from back to front. Whether she's bringing her elegant, intimate touch to familiar contemporary favorites like Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'" and Tom Waits's "The Heart of Saturday Night," or offering up her fine originals, Peyroux turns in a batch of gorgeous, studied performances on HALF. The result is a quiet, haunting gem of an album.Rolling Stone (p.88) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[S]teeped in jazz and classic pop; much of it is polite and pretty..."
Entertainment Weekly (p.94) - "WORLD is like stumbling into a jazz cafe at closing time, when the performers are lingering on stage, not ready to leave the music." -- Grade: A-
Q (p.147) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[H]er take on Joni Mitchell's 'River', featuring harmonies from the like-minded kd lang, is the melancholy highlight. It's perfect rainy day music."
Down Beat (p.76) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "In keeping with Peyroux's unassuming vocal approach most of the songs make an almost surreptitious entry..."
No Depression (p.121) - "On 'A Little Bit', Peyroux's voice skirts flirtatiously around the melody, while the string quartet on 'Once In A While' puts an artful shimmer on soft blues."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.104) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he warm sound puts every note in the room with you....Intimate and unforced..." Half The Perfect World Music | List Price | $17.97 (You save $4.92) | | Category | Rock/Pop Albums, Rock CDs, Pop, Jazz | | Label | Rounder | | Orig Year | 2006 | | All Time Sales Rank |  3547  | | CD Universe Part number | 7222263 | | Catalog number | 613252 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Sep 12, 2006 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Larry Klein |
Half The Perfect World Music Half The Perfect World Music Review Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)  Wonderful!
The softness of Maria Muldaur With the edginess of Tracy Nelson. She just keeps getting better. This is the best album yet!!
Submitted by ejwii (Oxnard, CA) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Add Her to the List of Torch Song Divas
Madeleine's sings with a silky sultry texture that reminds you a bit of a Billie Holiday. However, she is amazing in her vocals with the repetoire of songs, ballads,country, etc. she can bring it home.
Submitted by mjparel (Los Angeles, CA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No Peyroux does it again
As a fan of Madeleine Peyroux's bluesy, intimate sound I wanted to hear her third CD, "Half the Perfect World," the minute it was released. And I'm not disappointed. Her Billie Holiday phrasing combined with her wit and unexpected lyrics on songs she co-wrote match the best of her "Careless Love" CD that originally won my heart. My only complaint is the sound engineering. Her voice is too often lost on certain tracks. I yearned for the crisper mix of the tracks on the recent Diana Krall release ("From This Moment On") that features Krall's voice rather than let it fade behind the other musicians.
Submitted by dynester (Northampton, MA, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No | Have you heard this album? |  |
Buy Half The Perfect World CD Purchase Half The Perfect World CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Madeleine Peyroux Dreamland CD (1996)
Half The Perfect World album
 $8.65    
All tracks have been digitally mastered using HDCD technology.
Singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux's soulful voice is occupied so palpably by the spirit of Billie Holiday that it's almost scary. Peyroux is certainly influenced by the song and voice of Bessie Smith as well, but she approaches the material on her major-label debut from an entirely modern perspective, with strength and individuality as well as a hint of playfulness, like a stylish young woman looking great in a vintage dress.
Peyroux covers such classics as "Walkin' After Midnight," Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose," and Smith's "Reckless Blues" with style and agility, backed by such well-known and expert musicians as jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut and guitarist Marc Ribot. DREAMLAND is buoyed as well by Peyroux's accomplished original songs, the bluesy vocal-Dobro tunes "Hey Sweet Man" and "Always a Use," and the album's dynamic, hopeful title track, DREAMLAND'S most contemporary and upbeat song.
Recorded at RPM ...
| | Madeleine Peyroux Careless Love CD (2004)
Half The Perfect World CD music
$13.05 
Madeleine Peyroux's unique blend of jazz and pop was first unveiled on 1996's DREAMLAND, where she sounded like a postmodern heir to the smoky-voiced tradition that ran down from Billie Holiday through the likes of Karen Dalton and Judy Roderick. Though Peyroux made a splash with her debut, she quickly dropped out of the music scene, not to appear again until eight years later with the long-overdue follow-up, CARELESS LOVE.
Here, Peyroux tackles material from a variety of sources; some songs were written expressly for her by such contemporary songsmiths as Jesse Harris (who penned Norah Jones's breakthrough hit, "Don't Know Why"). Perhaps most striking, though, are her interpretations of older compositions. Peyroux redefines the darkly yearning Leonard Cohen tune "Dance Me to the End of Love" as a sultry invitation rather than a heart-on-the-sleeve plea. Her lighter-than-air ...
| | Diana Krall From This Moment On CD (2006)
Half The Perfect World music CDs
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With a track list that includes "Little Girl Blue," "Willow Weep for Me," and "Isn't ...
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Half The Perfect World songs
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| | Herbie Hancock River: The Joni Letters CD (2007)
Half The Perfect World album
$10.99 
Any doubts about the incongruity of jazz icon Herbie Hancock covering singer-songwriter extraordinare Joni Mitchell will be obliterated on the first journey through RIVER: THE JONI LETTERS. For starters, the premise is not especially incongruous. Hancock has had a long, adventurous career in which he's traversed genres and masterfully blended styles, while Mitchell has always been deeply influenced by jazz as both a composer ...
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Half The Perfect World CD music
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| | Bumble Bee Slim Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 7: (1936-1937) CD (1994) Import
Half The Perfect World music CDs
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| | Alex Bartha's Hotel Traymore Orchestra & Roane's Pennsylvanians CD (2000)
Half The Perfect World songs
$12.09
A couple of excellent jazz-influenced dance bands are featured on this CD. The year 1932 is often thought of as one of the low points in jazz history (particularly on records) due to the Depression, but there was more good music being recorded during that era than is often acknowledged. The seven songs (counting two alternate takes) from Alex Bartha's Hotel Traymore Orchestra (a ten-piece group) are most noticeable for the trombone solos by Harry Finkelman, who would a few years later be known as a trumpeter called Ziggy Elman. Elman was a fine trombonist (though he never played the instrument again in public after joining Benny Goodman in 1936) and shares solo space with the fine trumpeter Phil Shreve; Carl White takes the vocals. Also included on this CD are ten numbers plus six alternate takes from the Roane's Pennsylvanians, a 12-piece group with no famous names (including a saxophonist named Dyke Bittenbender). Their dance band music is excellent, including such songs as "Chinatown, My Chinatown," "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea," "Goodbye Blues," and "Charlie Two-Step." An excellent acquisition for collectors of hot dance band music. ~ Scott Yanow
collection ...
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Half The Perfect World album
$12.89
This album is full of rockabilly in the vein of '50s and '60s rock like Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee. The title track is a perfect example of this, a fast-paced number that features Eddie Angel doing some great guitar solos. There is also a garage rock element to the album, sounding very raw and jagged in portions. The Yardbirds' "Train Kept A-Rollin'" showcases Barbara Burnette's vocals, which do the genre justice time after time. "Jukebox" is more of a traditional country honky tonk in the vein of a Sun Records-era Elvis Presley or a latter-day Mike Ness. Unfortunately, it tends to lose a bit of steam near its conclusion, coming off a bit shabby after the guitar solo two minutes in. "Hot Rod Grace" has Burnette not going all-out vocally, but Angel again delivering a guitar riff worthy of Scotty Moore. It's quite easy to distinguish some of the musicians' influences, notably ...
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Half The Perfect World CD music
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| | Louis Armstrong Early Years: Recorded Live 1938-1949 CD (2003)
Half The Perfect World songs
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| | Hinemoana Baker Puawai CD (2009) (Import)
Half The Perfect World album
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