| Despite her roles in mainstream musicals such as Cats and Chicago, Ute
Lemper has never been a typical Broadway baby. Her long association with
the works of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, as well as her one-woman shows
based on the repertoires of Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, has always
marked her as a maverick in a world overpopulated by bland belters and
cute ingénues. Lemper's distinctive voice isn't an instrument for easy
listening. At full tilt, it's dangerous and edgy. In subdued mode, it's
dark, ironic, and despairing. The cruelty that runs through many of her
interpretations is taken on the chin. Lemper deals in defiance rather
than submission. With just one, edgily updated Weill song ("Tango Ballad")
and a host of contributions from Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits,
Philip Glass, and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, Punishing Kiss is a
modern, bleak look at love in the 21st century. At times the tone is murderous,
even apocalyptic ("The Case Continues"). The duet "Split," sung with Hannon,
is a grimly humorous riot of punches and counterpunches in a disintegrating
relationship. There's fleeting, poignant beauty too, in tracks like Waits's
"Purple Avenue." Essential listening for anyone who likes their torch
songs blood-stained, not just dampened by a few tears. |
