Secular hymns

""Secular Hymns" finds the vocalist/guitarist delivering a stripped-down, largely acoustic set of warm, eclectic cover tunes ... While technically a studio album (...), "Secular Hymns" feels like you are sitting in the front row of an intimate Peyroux concert ... Despite the acoustic, minimalist nature of the production, Peyroux still manages to defy expectations, offering up a delicately swaggering take on Allen Toussaint's "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" and transforming Linton Kwesi Johnson's reggae anthem "More Time" into a something that sounds improbably like Eartha Kitt doing a cabaret homage to Bob Marley. Thankfully, it works".

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"Peyroux brought her regular guitarist Jon Herington and bassist Barak Mori to a 200-seater 12th-century Oxfordshire church (hence the title) for this recording of classic songs from composers as different as Tom Waits, Allen Toussaint, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and 19th-century American songwriter Stephen Foster. Mori's big, growling sound and Herington's gleaming rejoinders and scampering runs surround the singer on Eric Clapton's "Got You on My Mind"; she delivers Waits's "Tango Till They're Sore" with a sardonic intimacy, and Townes Van Zandt's "The Highway Kind" as an introverted speculation that makes her signature upturns of resolving notes sound as natural as talking".

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"Since [Peyroux's debut twenty years ago] her voice has often been compared to mid-career Billie Holiday, and that comparison remains valid on Secular Hymns. Some singers would find that a millstone around their neck, but Peyroux continues to wear it well ... The ten songs (...) cover an impressively broad time span and range of styles from the traditional spiritual "Trampin" and Stephen Foster's 1854 song "Hard Times Come Again No More" right through to contemporary composers Tom Waits, Townes Van Zandt and Linton Kwesi Johnson. As ever, Peyroux's voice perfectly conveys every song's emotions, no matter how poignant the subject matter ... This album is a delight from start to finish, without a single track that is less than excellent. Peyroux continues to go from strength to strength".

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"There's an immaculate simplicity about the way Madeleine Peyroux and her two accompanists treat these 10 songs, which she calls secular hymns. With composers ranging from Stephen C Foster to Tom Waits, Willie Dixon to Linton Kwesi Johnson, the only subject they seem to have in common is life itself, but the candour of Peyroux's approach, the warm intimacy of her voice and the incisive clarity of the arrangements draw them together".

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