Eleni Mandell: Afternoon : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

With a sultry smokes-and-booze voice and a delivery that's "can't be bothered" one minute and "pinch me if I'm dreaming" the next, Eleni Mandell is hopeful and derisive, dramatic and playful, a Holly Golightly if she'd been written by Raymond Chandler. On her fifth album, the Los Angeles-based torch singer lowers her silk stockings just enough to show some vulnerability and also lets a few country tinges burn away some of the mist. Her backup musicians know how to paint the scene -- the dry, textured instrumentation scares away at all the right moments, allowing her quietly molten voice to seep into the cracks. Imagine Norah Jones if she subbed Starbucks for martinis, plus some of Suzanne Vega's artful detachment -- minus the chill factor. When she purrs, "A little bite, mmm, I am a tiger," on "Dangerous," it's easy to be fooled, but it's that kind of playfulness that comes right before the big swipe on the nose.