Madeleine Peyroux - 'Standin' On the Rooftop'

Madeleine Peyroux - Fifth album of jazz inflected folk/pop in fifteen years for the acclaimed singer and songwriter is notable for the lack of covers -- unlike her two million-selling 2004 album Careless Love -- and something of a more roots-centric continuation of '09's self-penned Bare Bones... Craig Street (Norah Jones, k.d. lang) produced // Release: Standin' On the Rooftop (June 14, Decca/Emarcy) // Quote: "This project is meant to be a wider dreamscape than previous recordings. I'm interested in exploring tougher sounds, even ugly sounds... trying to find something more raw than the voice that I have now, and in the accompaniment that I have become used to." // Sounds like: Street's spare production gives Peyroux's slinky, Billie Holliday-ish voice plenty of breathing room...the haunting guitar lines from Marc Ribot add a dark, reverbed twang...the shift from Peyroux's cool jazz backing on her earlier albums is a nice change of pace // What we like: "Eerie and intimate" lead single "The Things I've Seen Today" (video after the jump), co-written with New York songwriter and violinist Jenny Scheinman, has a wonderfully understated tone, Peyroux's vocals a marvel of gentle restraint...

Madeleine Peyroux - "The Things I've Seen Today" (from Standin' On the Rooftop)

(From the Madeleine Peyroux 2009 DVD Somethin' Grand)

Photo Credit: David Bartolomi