Love Scenes

On Dave Frishberg's simultaneously hilarious and sexy "Peel Me A Grape," Krall manages to make her voice sound like an aural version of what Mae West looked like visually. You can't go wrong with lyrics like, "Best way to cheer me/Cashmere me," but Krall manages to transcend the slight silliness of the song to give it some real kitten-with-a-whip snap. Towards the end, her whispers and moans have the flavor of the Julie London version of "Go Slow"--all enticement and sex.

Krall sings "I Don't Know Enough About You" with a forthrightness and sense of righteous expectation that makes it clear she fully intends to find out more about "you"--and she manages to make every red-blooded listener wish that someone would sing to them this way.

On "Lost Mind," Krall admits her helplessness in the face of a "wild romance" and asks for help wherever she can get it, while simultaneously injecting some defiance into her plea for whatever aid she can find. When she sings "He was cool and sweet/Sweet and cool as homemade sin," you find yourself wanting to grab a partner and indulge in a little bit of homemade sin yourself!

Too bad Krall grabs all the headlines, because her backing band is brilliantly capable. They show a restraint that's refreshing and which shows off to best advantage the intimate nature of Krall's sinuous voice.

There's nothing here that really cooks, which is the only downside. I'd like to hear at least one track that allows everyone to really go nuts. But maybe that's not the point of this album.

At first listening (on an erratic portable CD player), I thought the sound level was uneven on this CD, but after careful listening, the recording is excellent, if not exactly the same as All For You.