Rod Stewart’s mega-successful Great American Songbook series has become something of a blueprint for musicians at a crossroads – donning a metaphorical black tie and settling into the nostalgic glow of pre-rock music standards. As the former Eurythmics star points out, Nostalgia may be just that for most of her listeners, but this sideways skip into jazz and blues is new for her. Still, exemplary a singer as Lennox is, it would take something truly extraordinary to bring something to Gershwin and Carmichael classics that Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald didn’t. Lennox can’t hope to approach the anguish or disgust of Billie Holiday’s original Strange Fruit, so why even try, unless you’re going to totally reinvent the song like the Cocteau Twins did? Lennox is at her best when she sounds most involved, and her beautiful takes on Georgia on My Mind, God Bless the Child and You Belong to Me are full of poignancy and yearning.
