Miracle Of Five [Audio CD] MANDELL,ELENI

Product Description On her sixth album, Eleni Mandell delivers a magnificent, late night, lights-low set -- her sexiest recording yet. Her conversational alto is set beautifully against the reeds (Jeff Turmes, who has backed James Harman and Badly Drawn Boy), guitar (Nels Cline of Wilco), vibes (DJ Bonebrake of X) and her longtime rhythm section of drummer Kevin Fitzgerald and bassist Ryan Feves. Produced by Andy Kaulkin and mixed by Rob Schnapf (Beck, Elliott Smith), the album is a sonic marvel. Her captivating songwriting has taken an optimistic turn, concentrating on love found instead of love lost. Already a local hero -- Los Angeles Magazine named Eleni best local singer and the LA Weekly anointed her as best songwriter -- Miracle of Five will open the world to this timeless chanteuse. With the conversational intimacy of her phrasing and the torchy romanticism of her most seductive material, Eleni Mandell sounds more than ever like a period piece throwback here. The title track, the opening "Moonglow, Lamp Low," and the closing after-hours-piano-lounge "Miss Me" evoke the sophisticated heyday of Cole Porter and the Gershwins, with saxophonist Jeff Turmes playing Lester Young to Mandell's Billie Holiday. She also displays a penchant for waltzes and lyrical anachronisms (does anybody really speak of "motor cars" these days?). Yet "Girls" and "Make-Out King" sound girlishly coquettish in comparison with such cosmopolitanism, "Salt Truck" seems sing-song and nursery-rhyme slight, and "Dear Friend" suffers from an increasingly busy arrangement. "My Twin," "Wings in His Eyes," and "Perfect Stranger" reflect Mandell's continued growth as a writer, but the album as a whole, despite generally strong production by Andy Kaulkin, suggests that she most needs an editor who can help this eclectic artist focus on what she does best. --Don McLeese