Quick Album Recommendation - Sing You Sinners - Erin McKeown

by Erin McKeown.

I had never heard of her until I caught a co-worker surfing (when they should have been working - for shame!) to find a nearby store that had a copy of this album. I was intrigued by his description and the goofy retro album cover and checked it out. I loved the iTunes samples and quickly bought it(too quickly, I'd say. Those apple guys have made it real easy for me to spend 10 bucks at a time. Clever bastards).

It's breezy and light in the style of 30's-40's standards. All covers of old tunes, some well known (Get Happy, Paper Moon, Just One Of Those Things) some not. It's kind of a peppy, swinging female version of Chris Isaak or Michael Buble. She keeps the sweetness coming from beginning to end and you'll end your listening session with your ears having that same minty-and-refreshed feeling your mouth gets from brushing your teeth. It's very enjoyable. The highlights are Get Happy, Cou Cou, the title track - Sing You Sinners and an interesting jazz take on Cole Porter's Just One Of Those Things.

I was quite surprised to find that the rest of her catalog doesn't seem to be at all like this one. This is confusing and impressive, because she handles this album with a level of assurance of someone who has been working in this style for a long time. Her last album was more of a rock-folk effort.

As such, I don't know what the next album may look like. But I'm interested to see what's next.