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The Girl In The Other Room
04/27/2004 9:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Ken Micallef
Diana Krall is the superstar sex kitten of jazz standards, an Amazonian blonde who sings like jazz great Carmen McRae and plays piano like a musclebound Nat King Cole. Sarcasm aside, Krall has helped rejuvenate the American Songbook, but her endless parade of soft focus album covers and sensual vocalese has grown tired, at best. Perhaps hoping to chart a new course in her million selling career, Krall tries a handful of less predictable covers and adds hubbie Elvis Costello to the lyric writing duties on The Girl In The Other Room. If you are expecting saucy renditions of “Oliver’s Army” or even “God Give Me Strength,” however, keep looking. This is serious chamber jazz, no doubt inspired by Costello’s own bout with maudlin heavy handedness, The Juliet Letters.
Backed by a nearly invisible jazz ensemble, Krall rubs hard and deep on Mose Allison’s “Stop This World” and Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow,” and other covers by rabble rousers Chris Smither and Tom Waits. The meat of the album, the Krall-Costello song cycle, is studied and sophisticated, at times recalling the profound compositions of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. The most resounding example is the title track, a rare moment of earthy melody matched with unsettling lyrics. Unfortunately, the spell breaks down and the songs grow tedious as the album nears its end, practically running out of a steam like an emotional rollercoaster stranded at the bottom of the tracks.
Next time, maybe Diana and Elvis will check out Get Happy! instead of Almost Blue.
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