BENNETT AND GAGA. Adorably playful duet.
The music charts have become a veritable playground for singers of diverse inclinations, singing styles and ages—as Tony Bennett and Scotty McCreery demonstrate in their latest albums. With the release of “Duets II” last month, the 85-year-old Bennett became the oldest living singer to debut on top of the Billboard 200—the legendary crooner’s very first No. 1 collection, would you believe?
Amazingly, last week, another record was broken when Scotty McCreery, “American Idol’s” Season 10 winner, became the youngest male singer to open at the top of the pop chart via “Clear As Day,” the first country album to accomplish such a feat!
Crossover appeal
Unlike the crossover appeal of Miley Cyrus’ country pop sound, Alabama’s country rock, Taylor Swift’s contemporary country, George Jones’ honky tonk, and Carl Perkins’ rockabilly, McCreery’s music is more country than pop—a robust fusion of western swing, bluegrass, Texas country and the Nashville sound.
The album largely relies on the 18-year-old singer’s malleable baritone and earnest rendition to deliver the goods, especially when he sings about the heady pleasures of young love (“I Love You This Big,” “Better Than That”), wonders about the distracting charms of the fairer sex (“The Trouble With Girls,” “You Make That Look Good”), pays tribute to mothers (“Dirty Dishes,” “Back On The Ground”), or reminisces about a special girl who dies prematurely (“Clear As Day”).
What McCreery lacks in depth and experience, he more than makes up for in enthusiasm, showmanship and youthful swagger, which are on full display in his swinging remake of Keith Urban’s “Walk In The Country.”
Legendary crooner
MCCREERY. Enthusiasm, showmanship and youthful swagger.
There’s more texture and variety in “Duets II,” Tony Bennett’s hefty collaborations album that features 17 of pop music’s biggest names sharing ballads and jazzy standards with the legendary crooner:
We’ve never been a big fan of Lady Gaga, but in the adorably playful “The Lady Is A Tramp,” pop music’s premier provocateur proves there’s more to her than hum-worthy melodic concoctions, palpable dance grooves and outrageous costumes. Devoid of her Autotune-embellished sound, Gaga sings like a lark and conjures up musical magic with Bennett as she coos, swoons, growls, scats—and soars!
Eerily elegiac
Also notable are Bennett’s duets with Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow, Michael Bublé and Queen Latifah. Winehouse is stirring as she renders the eerily elegiac “Body and Soul” with a recklessly idiosyncratic vibe.
Jones’ smoky vocals bring noirish effervescence to “Speak Low,” while Crow, Bublé and Latifah’s numbers (“The Girl I Love,” “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” “Who Can I Turn To?”) are sassy, sweet and solidly rendered.
On the downside, Bennett doesn’t have much chemistry with Josh Groban (“This Is All I Ask”), John Mayer (“One For My Baby”), Andrea Bocelli (“Stranger in Paradise”), Carrie Underwood (“It Had To Be You”), and Mariah Carey, who sings “When Do The Bells Ring For Me?” with more flash than substance.