When you listen to Wait ‘Til Midnight Ends you may feel a sudden calmness take over you. It is a quiet album, much like the time just after midnight when most of the world is at rest. June’s has a voice that is both sexy and gentle at the same time. Her style is a cross between Diana Krall, Madeleine Peyroux, and Ella Fitzgerald, giving the listener a delightful taste of something modern and something old fashioned at once.
The music combines jazz and blues, the kind of sounds you expect to hear in a dark martini bar, smoky and full of romance. The song “We Won’t Let It Bring Us Down” sounds like something from the 30s or 40s. “The Craziest Game” is a wonderful Spanish-flavored track that will the have the listener reaching for castanets. “Tattoo” is old school blues that you’d expect to hear on a street corner in New Orleans or maybe being played by someone riding on a boxcar traveling down the rails.
Just as those songs feel like they were pulled from another time period there’s “Make A Little Time For Love” where she sings about two lovers doing things separately such as watching TV or surfing the Internet. The song details a couple that is growing apart because they are busy with other things instead of their relationship. June sings the song as a third person that is observing the couple. It is a little bit voyeuristic, in a helpful way. June is like a guardian angel, reminding them to make time for love.
“Lincoln Avenue” is an up-tempo number that has a very sexy sound, thanks to June’s vocals and the wonderful sax playing by Steve Eisen. The music for the title track, “Wait ‘Til Midnight Ends” is a perfect fit for the lyrics. With your eyes closed you can envision a perfectly starry night as the tabla beats make you want to sway.
Each song on Wait ‘Til Midnight Ends takes you someplace different, whether you feel you are traveling back in time by listening or if it is to a particular point in a relationship. June does this in the most soothing manner possible. Songs such as “Crazy Sue” are sung so sweetly that they really feel like a lullaby. Even the way she plays the piano seems light and airy. Even the songs that are peppier are delivered in her gentle manner.
This is an album that takes all the stresses out of your day. It makes you want to kick back and sip a fine vintage and just chill, letting June’s lush vocals wash over you. It makes you want to snuggle close to someone you love. This album will move you to slow down your pace, to sit back and just enjoy and maybe even do what one of the songs suggest, “Make A Little Time For Love.”
Review by Andrea Guy
