Music Review: Wallflower

As an act of pure confidence, it can be inspiring when an artist releases an album with complete disregard for either critical or commercial appeal. This is at least partially the case for Diana Krall’s latest work of covers of pop songs from her childhood. While it falls well short of inspirational, Wallflower is slightly moving as a show of love and nostalgia for the past.

Diana Krall is a jazz singer and pianist who has been active since the early nineties. Since then, she has become one of the most commercially successful jazz artists of the twenty-first century, winning five Grammy awards and releasing several multi-platinum albums. Although usually she attains this success while still maintaining some edginess and a raw quality to her music, these aspects are lost on Wallflower, as David Foster overproduces her voice to the perfect combination of whisper and substance that it feels like he might have overstepped his bounds. His arrangements of mostly strings, lounge drums and guitar give no new life to the covers. Krall’s talent on piano is never questioned, though, and the album might’ve been more genuine and interesting if she stripped it to simply her singing and piano playing.

The album opens with a cover of “California Dreamin” that is actually more melodramatic than the original. Afterwards, there is a bittersweet rendition of “Desperado” and “Superstar.” On “Superstar,” Krall brings none of the dark emptiness that is usually associated with the song and instead sounds a little hopeful. It’s an interesting take, though still pretty bland. Krall then goes into a string of country-tinged pop standards. The last half closes with other pop hits like “Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word” and “In My Life.” The album closes with closes with “Yeh Yeh,” which brings a much missed energy to end an album that is plagued with bittersweet heaviness.

Like in most covers of “In My Life,” as Krall sings about loving the “people and things that went before,” it becomes clear she is speaking directly to the musicians she is covering. While Wallflower is very cute and nostalgic, a more fitting show of affection might be to innovate like those pop artists of the past instead of reducing their work to little more than easy listening, smooth jazz.