Annie Lennox – Nostalgia (Vinyl LP)

One of the most successful and talented artists in pop music history is back – and back like you’ve never heard her before. In October 2014, Annie Lennox releases her seventh solo album. Nostalgia (on Island/Blue Note) is a collection of the iconic singer’s impassioned takes on standards primarily from the 1930s and 1940s, many of them popularized by the likes of Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Jo Stafford and Louis Armstrong.

Nostalgia is the result of hours Lennox spent perusing vintage recordings and video performances of songs from the Great American Songbook, particularly those rooted in the blues. “I was just curious,” says the singer of “Summertime,” “I Put a Spell On You” and “Strange Fruit” and other, less-widely known songs such as “Mood Indigo” and “September in the Rain,” – “I thought, ‘I wonder what my voice would be like. Would these songs suit my voice?’ It was like a little challenge. I just sort of got to know them, became friends with them really and had a great deal of joy in the process.”

The music on the album was mostly played by Annie alongside her long-time collaborator and co-producer, Mike Stevens and was recorded in his West London studio. Finding Lennox at her most soulful, Nostalgia brings levels of depth and warmth to songs that primarily originated from the civil-rights era.

1.  Memphis In June

2.  Georgia On My Mind

3.  I Put A Spell On You

4.  Summertime

5.  I Cover The Waterfront

6.  Strange Fruit

7.  God Bless The Child

8.  You Belong To Me

9.  September In The Rain

10. I Can Dream, Can’t I?

11. The Nearness Of You

12. Mood Indigo