Lumpy Gravy

This is the album that closed Peggy Lee’s longstanding relationship with Capitol Records, for which she recorded an astonishing 31 LPs (starting in 1957 with The Man I Love). Lee’s voice changed a lot over that time, as did her place in the pop-music landscape. When Norma Deloris Egstrom was released in June 1972, the industry was dominated by a new set of singer/songwriters, some of whom were a full two generations younger than the aging chanteuse. Rather than let the new generation intimidate her, Lee embraced their intimate and confessional style, resulting in some of her career's most revealing performances. “Just for a Thrill” is the sound of elegance fraying, while “I’ll Be Seeing You” is the grand dame’s farewell turned into an anthem of languid melancholy. The most striking and personal tracks are the renditions of Leon Russell’s “A Song for You” and Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett’s “Superstar,” the latter of which was made famous by Karen Carpenter. While Carpenter made it a song of a young woman’s loneliness, Lee sings the same words as an older woman’s lament.