By Cait Brennan, Nov. 6, 2014.
Annie Lennox | Nostalgia | Blue Note | 
No matter how revolutionary they were at the outset, it seems every artist is destined to make an album of standards. There was certainly nothing standard about the sensational Annie Lennox when “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)” took over MTV, and her solo debut Diva was an exciting reinvention and an instant classic of its own. True to form, Lennox takes on the classics in Nostalgia with a powerhouse vocal performance and a timely set of tunes.
The opener, “Memphis In June,” starts off sounding like an old-time 78 rpm record spinning on your great-grandma’s Victrola, but soon blooms into a lush orchestral sound. Lennox delivers soulful turns on blues and jazz standards like “Georgia On My Mind,” “Summertime,” and such reverent, emotionally-charged Billie Holiday standards as “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless The Child.”
Lennox is at her best when she steps away from the reverence and lets sparks fly, like when she tears it up on the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins favorite “I Put A Spell On You,” and her simple, tender take on “The Nearness Of You.”
Annie Lennox has never sounded better, and these mostly pre-World War II songs, which reach back to a complex era not unlike our own, have never felt more timely.
Lucinda Williams | Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone | Highway 20 |
Alt-country singer Lucinda Williams has a gift for bringing diverse elements together to make something distinctive, a sound and style entirely her own. Her latest release — her 11th studio album since her 1979 debut — proves she’s come a long way. The pure, folkie voice of that record has been replaced by an aching, world-weary tone worthy of a ’30s blues singer, but she shines on.
“Compassion” starts things off with a very personal artistic collaboration; it’s a song Williams wrote with lyrics taken from a poem by her father, the well-known poetry professor Miller Williams. Over the course of this amazing 20 song double-album (if that concept can even be applied in 2014), she bares her soul on subjects like poverty on “East Side Of Town” and a sort of Buddhist impermanence on “Temporary Nature”, while laying out some Old Testament vengeance in “Cold Day In Hell.” Great blues-rock guitar and a down-home delta swamp-rock stomp drives it forward.
As the first release on her own label, Williams clearly felt free of the constraint — and editing — that label oversight can provide, and two hours is a long time for modern attention spans. But the quality is consistent throughout.
Williams truly sings her life, the experience and heartbreak and yearning and the slings and arrows have only made her stronger. Down Where The Spirit Meets The Bone is one of her best.