Audio Mixer: Helix Hadar.

Liner Note Author: Madeleine Peyroux.

Recording information: Market Street, Venice, Italy; Paramount Recording Studios, Hollywood, CA.

Author: Dylan Thomas.

Photographer: Andrew MacNaughtan.

Why it took vocalist Madeleine Peyroux eight years to follow up her acclaimed Dreamland album is anybody's guess. The explanation from her website bio claims, "I could have kept running with it, but I took a breather." Really it hardly matters, since there have been plenty of capable singers to fill that void. Produced by Larry Klein, Careless Love is essentially Dreamland part deux. She lost Yves Beauvais and Atlantic Records, as well as a stellar cast of edgy jazz and rock session players, but she did gain Larry Klein. There are some fine players on this album, including Larry Goldings, Scott Amendola, David Piltch, and Dean Parks, and it's a much more focused set than Dreamland. That she's on Rounder is just an "oh well." Since Klein is not reined in by having to be a "jazz" producer, his sense of restrained and subtle adventure is a perfect foil for Peyroux's voice and phrasing, which is still too close to the Billie Holiday model for comfort. The material is a curious collection of modern pop songs, country tunes, and old nuggets. There's an original as well in "Don't Wait Too Long," co-written with Jesse Harris and Klein. Peyroux's reading of Leonard Cohen's "Dance Me to the End of Love" that opens the disc is radical, sung like a German cabaret song, and lacks the drama of the original, which is on purpose but it's questionable as to whether it works.

Her cover of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" works much better. It keeps the breeziness of the original but focuses on the object of the song still being very present to the protagonist -- delighting in the presence of the Beloved. Parks' guitars play sparely and pronouncedly in the mix, as Amendola's brushwork complements the spare cymbal and tom-tom work of Jay Bellerose as well as Goldings' in-the-groove organ and piano. The hinge track on this record is the empathic and moving version of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars." With tense sound effects whispering in the backdrop and Goldings' celeste setting the atmosphere, once again Amendola's brushes whisper and shimmer, giving the singer an anchor in the depth of the song's melancholy. It's simply awesome. The sparse haunted treatment of Hank Williams' "Weary Blues" is devoid of its country trappings and rooted firmly in the uptown blues tradition of Holiday's 1940s. Likewise, the title track, a classic standard by W.C. Handy, is turned inside out and made a B sharp gospel-flavored R&B tune, driven by Goldings on the organ and a Rhodes piano -- an instrument that makes a frequent appearance here. Parks' subtle yet dirty guitar gives the singer a platform and she swims inside the lyric, letting it fall from her mouth. The tune's swing quotient is formidable. In all, this is a stronger record than Dreamland, in part because Klein is obviously sympathetic to singers and because Peyroux is a more confident and commanding singer. It's a welcome addition to the shelf, but if she waits another eight years, that space reserved for her may disappear. ~ Thom Jurek

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 stroll through the clouds of Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" has a graceful ease that puts the song's many previous cover versions to shame. Throughout CARELESS LOVE, Peyroux--with highly sympathetic production from Joni Mitchell right-hand-man Larry Klein--proves fully up to the task of redefining the role of torch singer for the careworn 21st century.