Acclaimed jazz singer, songwriter and interpreter Madeleine Peyroux will release Let’s Walk, her first album in six years, on June 28th. The new songs present sides of the artist only touched on in the past. The collection is her most diverse, intimate and bold work as she shares thoughtful and revealing views on personal and societal concerns. Peyroux offers hope through understanding and community by using one of our most unifying means, music.
Let’s Walk is Peyroux’s ninth album and the first in which she co-wrote every song with longtime collaborator Jon Herington. As evidenced from her new single ‘Please Come On Inside’, Peyroux has empathy and wisdom to impart. While many of us have lost a connection or a relationship with someone close due to these polarising and divisive times, Peyroux offers a way back through compassion and kindness. Listen to ‘Please Come On Inside’ HERE.
Stylistically, Let’s Walk may be Peyroux’s most varied yet cohesive collection thus far. She incorporates elements of jazz, folk, gospel blues, Americana, chamber pop, Latin rhythms and a little playful humour into the mix. The songs are interwoven around contemplative, observational and confessional narratives, making it the deepest and most substantive album of her illustrious catalogue.
The title track was inspired by the mass mobilisation of everyday people standing up and unifying for civil rights around the world in 2020. The stunning “How I Wish” is a soul-searching awakening in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. On “Nothing Personal,” she addresses sexual assault – both her own, and countless others, with her aching and poignant vocals.
As much depth and soul searching as Let’s Walk presents, there is a lighter side as well. The playful “Me and the Mosquito” features a Caribbean-infused rhythm and vocal as Peyroux tackles the ever-elusive pest that will not let her sleep at night. She closes the album with a humorous, while somewhat serious advisory, via the tongue-in-cheek, speedy spoken-word track “Take Care”, inspired by the dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Let’s Walk finds Madeleine Peyroux in the most freely creative place of her celebrated career. With eight albums and worldwide acclaim, she refuses to stand still as she arrives at a new artistic and creative plateau. True artists always continue to move forward, much like the album title suggests.
