My One and Only Thrill

2009  ·  Verve Records  ·  Album

An album that earns the second side — and the hour after that.

There is a version of late-night listening that asks almost nothing of you — it simply fills the room and lets you stay inside it. My One and Only Thrill is that kind of record, but it does something more precise than ambience: it holds a mood without repeating itself. Melody Gardot’s voice is one of the more unusual instruments in contemporary jazz — hushed to the point of fragility but never without control, moving between resignation and something closer to grace. The arrangements by Vince Mendoza, best known for his work with Joni Mitchell, give the album its depth — strings that arrive without announcement and retreat the same way. The title track alone justifies the whole thing. It is the kind of song that makes you set down whatever you were doing and simply listen.

Put it on late, when the evening has already decided what it is. It works best at low volume, which is a rarer quality than it sounds — most records shrink at low volume, this one opens. It is a good album for the end of dinner when neither person is ready to leave the table, or for a Sunday evening that has no particular destination. Gardot released it in 2009 and it has aged without effort, which is the final proof of the thing. Some records belong to their moment. This one belongs to any night quiet enough to hear it.

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VERDICT  ·  A record that belongs to any night quiet enough to hear it.

POUR  ·  A Calvados, or a good cognac. Something with age and no hurry.

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