The second album by New York-based cabaret singer
Rebecca Spencer hews close to the traditions of the style: grand piano runs and a graceful cello are the main accompaniment as
Spencer genteelly riffles through the Great American Songbook for chestnuts like "Deep Purple" and "Stardust" (presented as a medley), along with Broadway faves like
Marvin Hamlisch's "The Girl Who Used to Be Me" and
Andrew Lloyd Webber's "You Must Love Me." Not a hair is out of place, either in Philip Fortenberry's staid piano or
Spencer's too-practiced, emotion-free vocals. It's all exceedingly polite, with no sense of jazz's easy swing even on an acknowledged classic of the form like
George Gershwin's "Summertime," which
Spencer simply massacres by virtue of ostentatious semi-operatic oversinging. That's by far the worst of the lot, but there's little to recommend
Fair Warning, except perhaps as a sleep aid. ~ Stewart Mason