Diana Krall comes full circle in two ways on this album. Last year she did a tribute to her dad’s taste in music with Glad Rag Doll; this time out she focuses on songs that she herself grew up with. Boomer hits from groups like The Eagles and singer/songwriters like Jim Croce, Elton John and Gilbert O’Sullivan. The other way she’s completed the equation is that she’s perfectly paralleled the career of Nat “King” Cole. Both she and Cole started out as bona fide bopping pianists, discovered the artistic and financial merits of also singing, and subsequently put out material that focused on the latter. In concert, she is much more of the jazz lilt than Cole was at this stage (would she have played the Stardust or the Copa?), but her albums have an appeal to jazz fans for her voice, and pop fans for her selection and interpretation of more commercial fare.
This album is surprisingly strong, and her voice has a rich maturity to it. She does wonders with the 10CC hit tune “I’m Not In Love,” taking the tongue out of the cheek in the process. She gives a woman’s touch to the Eagles’ “Desperado” and “I Can’t Tell You Why’ (nice call by NOT doing “Hotel California”) and does a cozy duet with Michael Buble’ on the bubblegummy “Alone Again, Naturally” while she lets Blake Mills get the spotlight with a nice guitar solo on Bob Dylan’s “Wallflower.” Paul McCartney brings a new song to the table on “If I Take You Home Tonight” which fits right in, and Krall wears the beads and headband well on “California Dreamin’.” Not as much nostalgia delivered here as more of artistic interpretation; always a great sign for such an important artist.
Verve Records