Eleni Mandell - Miracle Of Five
LA-based chanteuse Eleni Mandell channels classic American influences in her latest album, Miracle Of Five, calling to mind the songwriting of Billie Holiday delivered in Ella Fitzgerald’s haunting voice. Featuring Wilco lead guitarist, Nels Cline, the album shows Eleni’s sultry side with subtle jazz influences. Stand out track “Girls” takes the listener through a daydream-esque waltz with an elegant persuasion that will leave you breathless. Don’t miss Eleni touring the West coast this month, and check out the album.
With the conversational intimacy of her phrasing and the torchy romanticism of her most seductive material, Eleni Mandell sounds more than ever like a period piece throwback here. The title track, the opening “Moonglow, Lamp Low,” and the closing after-hours-piano-lounge “Miss Me” evoke the sophisticated heyday of Cole Porter and the Gershwins, with saxophonist Jeff Turmes playing Lester Young to Mandell’s Billie Holiday. She also displays a penchant for waltzes and lyrical anachronisms (does anybody really speak of “motor cars” these days?). Yet “Girls” and “Make-Out King” sound girlishly coquettish in comparison with such cosmopolitanism, “Salt Truck” seems sing-song and nursery-rhyme slight, and “Dear Friend” suffers from an increasingly busy arrangement. “My Twin,” “Wings in His Eyes,” and “Perfect Stranger” reflect Mandell’s continued growth as a writer, but the album as a whole, despite generally strong production by Andy Kaulkin, suggests that she most needs an editor who can help this eclectic artist focus on what she does best.
Website: www.elenimandell.com
