Yep. And it sounds really good.
In singing the Hoagy Carmichael classic from 1930, Lennox displays instinctive knowledge other folks with freight train vocal cords would do well to remember: there is power in poise. She doesn’t make “Georgia on My Mind” her own the way Willie Nelson did on his 1978 standards collection “Stardust.” But she does something just as impressive: Lennox makes it everyone’s who takes the time to listen.
Whereas Willie’s idiosyncratic phrasing slips behind on some bars before playing catch-up on the next, making it clear this is Willie singing and nobody else, Lennox’s less distracting interpretation is how you’d like to think you sound when you’re singing in the shower. Her crisp intonation and emotive crescendos convey the song’s nostalgic message loud and clear, and the track’s sparse arrangement of gently wavering organ and oscillating synthesizer hum give you room to sit and hear it.
Lennox musters up all sorts of soul on album highlight “I Put a Spell on You,” written by Screamin’ Jay Hawkings back in 1956. As she spits line after line of octave-leaping fire over a pulsing bass thrum and the track erupts into a piercing blues guitar solo, the Aretha Franklin comparison gets harder and harder to suppress.
The lounge-y, understated snare and bass strut of “I Cover the Waterfront” provide a grounding, in jazz tradition, for Lennox’s soaring delivery of the chorus, and little trumpet filigrees slip in and fill in any empty spaces.
Lennox’s quasi-whisper gives Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” eerie, mysterious strength.
She imbues her slowed-way-down version of George Gershwin’s “Summertime” with elegiac majesty. Her voice’s only accompaniment comes in the form of a brooding piano’s sparse hammers and a near-imperceptible swell of strings, and each instrument’s subtlety makes it clear Lennox’s vocals claim top listening priority. Her phrase-ending ascensions to above-the-staff high notes are moments of chilling beauty.
