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TANGOS AND TANTRUMS
(Cheap Lullaby)
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The appealing ditty "All His Exes" sums up Sylvie Lewis’s sophisticated jazz-baby cabaret on her debut album: over trumpet, dexterous piano, and some well-placed oohs in the background, she croons about a suspicious boyfriend, realizing, "The only exes that I’m friends with/Are the two that still want me." The Berklee-trained Lewis knows how to use her sweet voice to good and varied effect, whether she’s outdoing Norah Jones on the hushed music-box opener, "By Heart," or trilling from the perspective of a 17-year-old ingénue in "My Rival." On the latter, which is loosely based on a Rudyard Kipling poem, she laments lost youth and innocence, warbling "My rival loves you" as drums and piano surge with subtle but intense interplay. Coming off like Nellie McKay in her quieter moments, Lewis makes good use of minimalism with both a crackerjack band and witty lyrics. It takes a talented singer to make a double negative sound beguiling, but when Lewis asks, "Why don’t we not go to the movies tonight?", the effect is intoxicating. (Sylvie Lewis opens for Ed Harcourt this Saturday, April 23, at the Paradise Lounge, 969 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston; call 562-8814.)
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