With 2020's Sunset in the Blue singer Melody Gardot sinks into a dusky and languorously produced album that builds upon her love of jazz standards, Brazilian music, and intimate balladry. The record finds Gardot surrounded by a production dream team, including longtime associate Larry Klein, who helmed 2009's My One and Only Thrill and 2015's Currency of Man, as well as equally acclaimed studio pros, arranger Vince Mendoza and engineer Al Schmitt. Together, they have crafted a showcase for Gardot's delicately nuanced vocal style. The album is an interesting dichotomy, at once intimate as if Gardot is singing to you in a small club, yet also widescreen, framing her hushed vocals in sweeping orchestrations that reinforce the romantic drama at play in the songs. The opening original "If You Love Me Let Me Know," sounds like something Dinah Washington or Abbey Lincoln might sing, but filtered through the half-lidded scrim of Gardot's bedroom intimacy. Equally evocative moments follow, as on the yearning "You Won't Forget Me," in which Gardot balances a wry cabaret theatricality à la Marlene Dietrich with a tangible sadness that never feels anything but real. Elsewhere, she gently wades into a handful of earthy bossa nova songs, including a gorgeously attenuated reading of the Ella Fitzgerald number "C'est Magnifique" featuring Brazilian singer António Zambujo and a crackling take of Marco Paulo's "Ninguem, Ninguem" that she sings in Portuguese. We also get a movie theme-ready version of "From Paris with Love," as well as memorable takes on classics like "Moon River" and "I Fall in Love Too Easily." From beginning to end, Gardot's Sunset in the Blue holds you in its deeply rapturous glow.
© Matt Collar /TiVo