Secular Hymns

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Secular Hymns
Madeleine Peyroux - Secular Hymns.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedSeptember 16, 2016 (2016-09-16)
RecordedJanuary 12–13, 2016
StudioParish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Great Milton, England, UK
Genre Vocal jazz
Length33:31
LanguageEnglish
Label Impulse!
Producer Madeleine Peyroux
Madeleine Peyroux chronology
Keep Me in Your Heart for a While: Best of Madeleine Peyroux
(2014)
Secular Hymns
(2016)
Anthem
(2018)

Secular Hymns is a 2014 studio album by American vocal jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. It has received positive reviews by critics.

Contents

Reception

Editors at AnyDecentMusic? rated this album a 7.2 out of 10, aggregating six scores. [1] According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Secular Hymns received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 79 out of 100 from six critic scores. [2]

Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Matt Collar writing that this album "finds the vocalist/guitarist delivering a stripped-down, largely acoustic set of warm, eclectic cover tunes... that's a 180-degree turn from her previous effort, 2013's ambitious homage to Ray Charles, The Blue Room. [3] At The Arts Desk , Mark Kidel rated this album 3 out of 5 stars and characterized Peyroux as a "sultry cabaret chanteuse with shades of late-night jazz and the endemic melancholy of the blues" but complains that "this is blues lite, too clean for comfort". [4] DownBeat 's J. Poet gave 5 out of 5 stars to Secular Hymns and praised the ensemble on this recording: "Herington’s guitar adds blue, sliding, sustained notes that echo the crying tone of a steel guitar to support Peyroux’s somber vocal". [5] John Fordham of The Guardian praised the combination of "intimate exuberance and classic songs" captured in the live-in-studio setting and rated this release 4 of 5 stars. [6]

In The Irish Times Cormac Larkin rated Secular Hymns 3 out of 5 stars, ending "they’re the sort of songs that can sound hollow and insincere in the wrong hands, but Peyroux delivers every word like her life depends on it". [7] Christopher Loudon of JazzTimes called the blending of blues music, Gospel music, and jazz "a marvelous mélange". [8] The Observer 's Dave Gelly scored this release 4 of 5 stars for "the warm intimacy of her voice and the incisive clarity of the arrangements". [9] Writing for PopMatters , Steve Horowitz a 7 out of 10, summing up that "Peyroux offers fine performances, but they are hers and not the originals" and these songs are "mostly well-known classics from the past—they aren’t records meant to be broken but to be replayed again for their own merits". [10]

Track listing

  1. "Got You on My Mind" (Howard Biggs and Joe "Cornbread" Thomas) – 4:30
  2. "Tango Till They’re Sore" (Thomas Alan Waits) – 3:24
  3. "The Highway Kind" (Townes Van Zandt) – 2:47
  4. "Everything I Do Gonh Be Funky (From Now On)" (Allen Toussaint) – 3:16
  5. "If the Sea Was Whiskey" (Leonard Caston and Willie Dixon) – 3:07
  6. "Hard Times Come Again No More" (Stephen Foster) – 4:17
  7. "Hello Babe" (Lil Green and Kansas Joe McCoy) – 3:11
  8. "More Time" (Linton Kwesi Johnson) – 3:23
  9. "Shout Sister Shout" (Bill Doggett, Lucky Millinder, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) – 2:42
  10. "Trampin’" (traditional) – 3:01

Personnel

Additional musicians

Technical personnel

Charts

Chart performance for Secular Hymns
Chart (2016)Peak
position
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [11] 137
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia) [12] 53
French Albums (SNEP) [13] 32
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [14] 93
Portuguese Albums (AFP) [15] 22
Scottish Albums (OCC) [16] 77
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE) [17] 70
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [18] 64
UK Albums (OCC) [19] 96

See also

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References

  1. "Secular Hymns by Madeleine Peyroux reviews | AnyDecentMusic". AnyDecentMusic?. n.d. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  2. "Secular Hymns by Madeleine Peyroux Reviews and Tracks – Metacritic". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. n.d. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  3. Collar, Matt (n.d.). "Secular Hymns – Madeleine Peyroux". AllMusic . RhythmOne . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  4. Kidel, Mark (September 14, 2016). "CD: Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns". Reviews, News, & Interviews. The Arts Desk . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  5. Poet, J. (March 2017). "DownBeat Reviews". Reviews. DownBeat . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  6. Fordham, John (September 15, 2016). "Madeleine Peyroux: Secular Hymns review – intimate exuberance and classic songs". Music. The Guardian . ISSN   1756-3224. OCLC   60623878 . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  7. Larkin, Cormac (September 15, 2016). "Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns album review: passionate and heartfelt". Music. The Irish Times . ISSN   0791-5144 . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  8. Loudon, Christopher (April 25, 2016). "Madeleine Peyroux: Secular Hymns". JazzTimes . Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  9. Gelly, Dave (September 18, 2016). "Madeleine Peyroux: Secular Hymns review – immaculate simplicity". Music. The Observer . Guardian Media Group. ISSN   0029-7712. OCLC   50230244 . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  10. Horowitz, Steve (October 6, 2015). "Madeleine Peyroux: Secular Hymns". Reviews. PopMatters . Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  11. "Ultratop.be – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  12. "Ultratop.be – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  13. "Lescharts.com – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  14. "Offiziellecharts.de – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  15. "Portuguesecharts.com – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  16. "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  17. "Spanishcharts.com – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  18. "Swisscharts.com – Madeleine Peyroux – Secular Hymns". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
  19. "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 5, 2024.