I'm unimpressed. I had originally heard the title track and thought the entire CD would be as good. It's not. I wasn't at all impressed with some of the other classic re-workings.

First of all I was given this disc as a Christmas gift, and had no idea who Madeleine Peyroux was. Still, I am into Jazz quite a bit, check my other reviews to be sure.

The jazz I enjoy is usually a bit more experimental, or historically significant. So, how to grade the CD when her music is perhaps, an "acquired" taste? First of all, I was intrigued by the fact that this album is produced by former Joni Mitchell husband and producer, Larry Klein. How is the production quality to the CD? Not very good. Many instances the gain on the bass parts or on drums in some of the songs pegs the meters and causes an un-wanted distortion. Her voice is suitably recorded with little processing, though, and that's a good thing.

So, what about Madeleine's voice? She obviously uses a lot of the Billie Holiday techniques, especially some shorter sustain, and lots of bends. When she does this she does sound very much like Billie Holiday, but never just like Billie. Billie had a purer sound, and her pitch was better by far. Madeleine is more pitchy, sometimes sounding like she lacks vocal control. I understand some jazz singers simply sound like this, and that's fine, but other singers exhibit much more control.

Someone mentioned that she is more pure jazz than Nora Jones. Perhaps she is, the songs are more standards than Nora sings, but Nora Jones has an incredible control and vocal depth that Madeleine completely lacks. Madeleine sounds like she simply doesn't practice her craft enough. This recording sounds very much like a polished demo rather than a finished product. Nora has control of her pitch. She is always in tune. Madeleine has some problems keeping it in tune.

Which brings me to the duet, the Joni Mitchell tune River, which is beautiful. But KD Lang outshines Madeleine. It is incredible the difference, KD has so smooth of a voice, and--even though KD tries to keep it down, realizing this is a Peyroux album rather than a KD Lang album--KD still sounds so good I'm wanting to go out and hear HER latest release instead of plowing through this sleepyhead recording.

I must admit though, overall, I didn't fall asleep and I can understand why someone would enjoy the Holiday-isms on this album. It is nice to hear Holiday singing and Peyroux does a nice tribute to Billy in her stylings.

Madeleine Peyroux should be able to up her game by getting better production, and maybe getting some more original writing. Nicely packaged, though. Pretty music, but not really fantastic. 2 stars.

I can totally understand why many people like this artist. She has a fine voice (which sometimes DOES sound much like Billie Holiday). On this particular cd, I do not like some of the song selections (The Summer Wind for one), or some of the light-weightedness of the arrangements (why put the riff for Jingle Bells into Joni Mitchell's song 'The River?).

As I wrote about Dreamland...I wasn't familiar with Peyroux until seaching for new sounds on the Internet a few months ago. Thanks to Amazon and your reviewers, I found her....even though 11 years after her debut! I now have all 3 albums: "Dreamland", "Careless Love" and "Half a Perfect World". What a voice, what fun, what sounds, what's not to like about her. And to have her sing Bessie, and Billie, and Cohen and Piaf, and Patsy, and then sing River with K.D.!! She hit all my hidden buttons.
Gosh! I smiled with her version of "Smile" and then was moved to her blues! And then her own creations are icing on the croissont.....maybe even dark chocolate! Delicious. Ignore the very few nay-sayers who like to overly compare, and just enjoy her for being Madeleine ... singing songs that you enjoy listening to. Like others have said, play her anytime, in the car, during dinner, or for your own private concert with your lover.

the perfect world and half the talent or less (far, far less, as a matter of fact) of the artist she rips-off. if I want to hear some Billie Holiday, I'll listen to Billie Holiday, thank you very much.

Yes, for just one song, Joni Mitchell's "River" this album deserves pure five stars. Peyroux's voice is so fragile and humble with Lang's one melodic and strong without overpowering. Sheer pleasure for vocal lovers.

But there is more. I could never figure out that somebody can sing "Summer Wind" after Frank Sinatra covered it. Frank is of course always perfect. Yet, Madeleine's version is equally good. She has a naturally swinging voice and it shows. Leonard Cohen's songs are real delight, especially "Half the Perfect World", sung by Madeleine almost jokingly. And Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" ends the set. Bravo!

Listen.

Well, I guess that says it all. Let me explain.

Picture this if you will...
You've had a bad day and just want to get home to relax. You walk in the door, kick off your shoes and get you're coffee maker goin'. You pop into the living room and click on your audio system... letting it warm up while you get into something more comfortable. You grab a cup of coffee and head back to the living room. You pop Half The Perfect World in the CD player. You grab the remote and head for your listening spot. You click the 'GO' button on the remote and AHHHHHH... utter relaxation!

Great music and great performances. There's nothing left to say.

I rated this CD FIVE STARS based on the music and performances and that I'm writing to a non audiophile audience. HOWEVER, if I were reviewing this for my web page, I'd rate it this way:

Music A+
Performance A-
Recording C-

About the recording... the overall sound is "thick & muddy", that is, it lacks overall clarity and ambience. If you can relate to the difference between flying thru the air and swimming in mud, this thing was recorded in a mud puddle.

But don't let that stop you from buying Half The Perfect World. The beauty of the music and the excellence of the performances far outweigh the muddy, 1950's jukebox sound.

As I suggested at the beginning of this review ...sit back, relax, enjoy.

Very soulful artistry and a wide range in style made this cd very enjoyable. Peyroux's voice is very remeniscent of Billie Holiday and it has an undercurrent of angst. I would have liked a bit more up-tempo tunes but overall a very pleasant listening experience that I do not tire of.

Madeleine Peyroux is Bossa Nova! She's jazzy, but she's more, she's Bossa Nova! She presents us the liric "Half the perfect world" in the finest Bossa Nova way.
She's great and we'll listen to her in Brazil next september, 28.!

Carlos Salgado
Porto Alegre
Brasil

It's a sad thing when the most engaging music on a vocal album comes from the backup musicians. I had heard parts of this singer's first CD and enjoyed it quite a bit. Ms. Peyroux seemed to have a sense of style -- even if most of it was borrowed from you-know-who -- and a retro taste that made her stand out from the current crowd.

But I have been unable to listen to this entire CD in one sitting. In fact I haven't gotten more than three tracks into it without giving up in boredom. The pianist was doing more interesting things than the woman he accompanied.

Unbelievably lackluster performances. And not very well mixed or balanced either, although at least one can say the production is consistent with the flavorless artistry on "display" here.

Anyone who experiences M. Peyroux for the first time via this album will probably wonder what all the fuss is about. Sorry to be so negative. Even sorrier I spent money on this.

I stumbled across two video selections of Madeleine Peyroux singing for Minn Public Radio. "Half the Perfect World" and "It's Alright" can be found at http://minnesota.publicradio.org/collections/special/ongoing/video/

I really love her voice but I am not too keen on several of her arrangements of well known hits on this CD. Overall I was a bit disappointed.

Madeleine Peyroux stands out among current jazz singers - the comparisons to Lady Day are inevitable and appropriate. But, to say the obvious, Ms. Holiday has been gone a long time, and it's high time a talented singer picked up something of her approach and ran with it. I'd say Madeleine Peyroux is as good as any to handle this golden baton.

On Half the Perfect World Madeleine Peyroux takes possession of the melodic, pocket true style of jazz singing that I prefer. It's a style that 'sells the song' exquisitely, and the result is a record that is true to jazz but also quite approachable.

It's excellent; I reserve the fifth star for groundbreaking work, and I don't think this one qualifies as pioneering. I'm sure I'll play it often and for a long time, and I look forward to following Ms. Peyroux's work in the future.

I've been a Billie Holiday fan for years and had heard of Madeleine Peyroux and that she sounded like Billie, but I never took it seriously. I figured no way - how can someone sound like Billy Holiday? Well, it turns out Madeline Peyroux can! I've been listening to all of her albums and while this one isn't my favorite (I like "Careless Love" the best.) It is a good album and I think she is trying to break out a little from the Billie mold here (though just a teensy bit.) Clearly though with all her music she *is* trying to sound like Billie (she's not exactly singing heavy metal is she?) and at first I wasn't sure how I felt about such a perfect imitation. In the end I figured who cares? Might as well stop resisting and enjoy. The fact is this is good music and there are worse things then doing a near perfect impression of one the most famous singers of all time.

Madeleine's personal problems are all too well known; they may have affected the quantity of her output, but the quality remains superb.

This album is a follow-on to "Careless Love", and lives up to all of our high expectations. Madeleine is, once again, covering proven winners, and she's so good that she makes them her own. The duet, "River", with k. d. lang is a particular joy. From her much earlier album, "Dreamland", Madeleine has shown an equal facility in English and French, which is to be expected, given her years in Paris.

If you want to here jazz done right, don't miss this; the girl can REALLY sing.

Not as catchy as her 2nd album but a great cd for anyone who loves her musical style.

Madeleine Peyroux's followup to her spectacular debut record, "Dreamland" is charming and possess many of the outstanding attributes of the previous release - eclectic song choice, a retro sound, and of course, a Billie Hollidayesque voice that will always be better than any instrument that accompanies it.

With songs like "Everybody's Talking," "Blue Alert," "La Javanaise," and "River," a fantastic duet with k.d.lang, Peyroux continues to captivate and impress.

Great easy listening CD, great for an evening on the couch, lyrics and music are truly superb.

I love this calming, yet quietly powerful music. I've listened to it again and again and it always has a magical effect.

I got hooked on Madeline Peyroux after coming across a description in someone's Amazon list of jazz vocalists. Her first two albums are lovely, but perhaps suffer a bit from sounding at times like Billie Holiday imitations (not that that's a bad thing). This album has the most individual character: you get more of a sense of Peyroux as an artist in her own right rather than a remarkable voice in search of the right material. It seems everyone is covering Joni Mitchell's lovely "River" these days (see Diana Krall and, before her, Diane Reeves), but Peyrouyx does a nice turn in a duet with k.d. lang.

This is a qualitatively nice CD, but all of the songs are sung with the same tempo, sound level, and stylizing. the result is a CD guaranteed to put you to sleep and not really long for the initmacy of the song. Ms. Peyroux is a curious blend of a Black torch song singer from a long long time ago---get the picture? Almost like she prefers to mimic. Perhaps she's an acquired taste--I don't know--I'm not hungry anymore.

I enjoyed MP's previous album, and picked this one up based upon that success. I was not disappointed. It's a great jazz vocal effort, one of my favorites of the year so far. It's definitely an album, and not a collection of songs, to me.

I had heard Madeleine Peyroux's voice very briefly several months ago, and it really made me perk up my ears. I HAD to find out who that was! I was really tickled when I found her album when wandering around Amazon, and have been really pleased with it. She has a really great quirky voice and a comforting rhythm that send me way back to - I don't know - the forties, maybe? Peyroux isn't pop - not enough people will get it - but I know I'll watch avidly for new albums from her.

Exquisite voice and amazing covers. A star in any country and language.

WOW! Purchased on a whim and really like it! Reminds me of Nora Jones - but better. Good to listen to while working, in the car, when company is at the house. Selections are all very "catchy" and each is unique - not just a stylized version of other selections on the CD. Highly recommend.

"When Madeleine Peyroux went "missing" in Britain while promoting her breakthrough album "Careless Love", her record company couldn't wait to tell the media. How better to differentiate Peyroux from the rest of the jazz-lite crew than by painting her as a wayward chanteuse?
She hadn't disappeared, of course. She'd simply become bored with the promo-circus and gone back to New York. And who could blame her?
But Madeleine didn't need a vanishing act to raise her above her rivals. Her smoke-and-honey vocals, Billie Holiday phrasing, and breezily bohemian way with classy material had assured her fanbase.
They won't be disappointed by her third release, produced by Joni Mitchell's ex, Larry Klein.
It rolls out a lulling, late-night mix of Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen songs with new material co-written by Jesse Harris, best-known for his collaboration with Norah Jones.
The opener, "I'm All Right", is a lament for a lost love, written with sorrow and wit. As Madeleine pines for the man who smoked stogies and sang Christmas songs in bed, she sings of asking for "a few kind words/ He gave me a novel instead".
Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking" is slowed down to a beach-bar shuffle with delicate cymbals in the surf, and K D Lang contributes trademark stretched notes on a duet of Joni Mitchell's "River".
The songs don't have the rawness of the originals - but what's so wicked about enjoying a warm-hearted, elegant record that doesn't mind a bit of background chatter?"(H.Brown)

This is a terrific set. Peyroux's style combines the best of Billie Holiday with just a touch of Norah Jones (too much of Norah can be way too much for me), and the result is a wonderful listen.

Raspy, breezy, and relaxed are good adjectives to describe the music and Madeleine Peyroux's approach to these songs. Yet each time I hear it there's a new depth and nuance to the CD I hadn't appreciated before. With a nice balance of standards and new songs, everything's rendered just a little off-beat. This is good stuff. It won't be gathering much dust on the shelf at my house in years to come.

I confess I didn't actually buy this album for my own listening pleasure... at first. I was familiar with Peyroux's sound and thought my 82 year old grandmother might like it. Honestly, I never really paid much attention to her tastes in music before, but I was feeling guilty that I missed her birthday last month.

Well! She raved so hard and so long about it that I had to give it a listen myself... and have decided that if this is the kind of stuff Grandma likes, maybe I should have been paying attention!

Peyroux's voice is compared to Billie Holliday's in every review... but since I have only a passing acquaintance with Billie Holliday I feel I was able to listen to this album on its own merits, of which there are plenty. By turns sweet and longing, her voice on these tracks convey emotions that range from nostalgic to flirtatous to melancholy and back again by way of wistfullness. Although this album could be dismissed as "ambiance" for its easy sound and gentle melodies, it really is a rich experience that is due a deeper listen. Even if you just put it on for background sound, you'll find yourself thinking about it hours later... returning for just a little reminder of that sweet moment in sound.

I have all of Madeleine's material and it is all great, but she really excels with a "beat" behind her!!
Like in "A little bit" or "Don't wait too long" and "Careless Love" on the Careless Love cd.

I'd listen to anything Madeline sings, but truly, this is a great CD!

I love her previous CD "Careless Love" and bought this one on faith. Mistake!

On this CD she shows the unerring ability to turn any song into a dirge. I've played it multiple times now hoping that my disinterest was mood based, but no, this CD fades into the background never to emerge. On "Careless Love" I thought her phrasing added interest, on this CD I find it gimicky and ultimately annoying. When every phrase ends with the fall off, it loses interest fast. I'm not convinced, but if it is an attempt to imitate Billie Holiday, enough is enough.

Or it just might be the songs: only "Blue Alert" and the title track have me returning for more. The rest is just aural wallpaper or worse; as with the soporific "Everybody's Talking At Me".

Sadly, I need to be more circumspect with Ms. Peyroux, previews will be required for future purchases.

Got this in an Amazon promotion linking this with another CD that had one song by Diane Krall. It's an ok album but I won't be looking for her music again. Sorry, wrong number.

Sounding slightly less self-assured than she did on her last outing, Careless Love, Ms. Peyroux still managed to capture both my ears and a good chunk of my heart with this performance. Overall the selection of cover tunes is a bit uninspired--until you hear the title song, penned by Leonard Cohen but brought into full dimensional and aching life by this singer's intimate interpretation. And added props to the wonderfully tight yet spare stylings of her backing band, who embrace--no, play--the concept that less most definitely can be more. An extremely solid outing here.

You would'nt think if you see her perform that the frail figure on stage is the owner of this extraordinary voice.
Her rendering, alongside with K. D. Lang, of Joni Mitchell's "River" is one of the most beuatiful songs that I've heard in years. A real Christmas classic.
And the melancholy that exuberates from Leonard Cohen's "Blue Alert" makes the original seem bleak.
This is the ideal album to listen to after a hard day's of work. You just lay back and don't want anyone or anything disturb the tender caress of Peyroux' voice. Or, imagine a hot summer's night and you just want to cool down. Pur yourself a drink, put this record on and let if flow...
A minor note is her adaptation of Tom Waits' "The heart of saturday night". Strangely enough it doen'nt capture the same atmosphere as the original.
Of her own songs "I'm all right" and "A little bit" stand out.
Larry Klein should be credited for this fine production. Indeed, the world may not be perfect, but half of it seems feasible listening to this album.....