Melody Gardot – The Absence (2012)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 43:22 minutes | 924 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Decca (UMO)
The Absence is the sultry third album from GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter, Melody Gardot. The recording was produced by Heitor Pereira, known for his work as a session guitarist (Seal, Sting) and a renowned film composer (Despicable Me, It’s Complicated, From Prada to Nada). The pair shares a passion for creating rich sonic innovations through the sounds of Western pop, blues, jazz and soul. Woven with intricate guitars, silky strings and flutes, the album incorporates influences from exotic locales like Morocco, Buenos Aires and Brazil.
If Melody Gardot’s 2009 sophomore effort, My One and Only Thrill, sustained the sultry, atmospheric vibe of her critically acclaimed 2006 debut, her 2012 follow-up, The Absence, is a bit of a creative departure for the vocalist. Apparently inspired by her world travels, and specifically by a trip that brought her to the desert around the city of Marrakech, the album moves her away from smoky, small-group jazz and into a bright, if still bedroom-eyed, rhythmically exotic sound. Produced by guitarist/composer Heitor Pereira, the album is a lush, somewhat orchestral album that finds Gardot delving into various Brazilian, Spanish, and African-influenced sounds — including bits of samba, tango, bossa nova, and calypso — that evince her global journey. However, rather than simply making a standards album, Gardot continues her all-original approach, offering up new literate and passionately delivered compositions that bring to mind the work of such similarly inclined artists as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Paul Simon, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, and others. Although there are a few name musicians who help add spice to Gardot’s musical caravan here, including percussionist Paulinho Da Costa, drummer Peter Erskine, and bassist John Leftwich, primarily it is still Gardot’s burnished and yearning vocal style that takes the helm on these tracks.
Tracklist:
1-1. Melody Gardot – Mira (04:12)
1-2. Melody Gardot – Amalia (03:01)
1-3. Melody Gardot – So Long (03:46)
1-4. Melody Gardot – So We Meet Again My Heartache (04:23)
1-5. Melody Gardot – Lisboa (05:24)
1-6. Melody Gardot – Impossible Love (03:46)
1-7. Melody Gardot – If I Tell You I Love You (03:34)
1-8. Melody Gardot – Goodbye (03:37)
1-9. Melody Gardot – Se Voce Me Ama (04:53)
1-10. Melody Gardot – My Heart Won’t Have It Any Other Way (02:36)
1-11. Melody Gardot – Iemanja /Chegue Journeyman (Hidden Track) (04:03)
