Having long been unfairly dismissed as an ingenious Sinatra impersonator in some critical quarters, it's easy to see why Harry Connick, Jr., has been reluctant to record the sort of pop standards cover album that's become the career refuge of rock artists as diverse as Bryan Ferry and Rod Stewart. But that's exactly what the New Orleans pop revivalist has done here on a slate of familiar chestnuts from the 1950s and '60s. But there's a notable conflict at work here between Connick the arranger/conductor and Harry the pop crooner. The former seems eager to infuse his charts with the sort of restless, reinventive musicality he's displayed on recent works as diverse as the stage foray Thou Shalt Not and the neo-bop jazz instrumental collection it inspired, Other Hours, bringing to bear arranging influences as diverse as Ray Charles and Nelson Riddle. But the oft Sinatra-smitten vocalist cruising over those masterfully stripped-down arrangements and bluesy, laconic tempos still seems sometimes reluctant to step out of The Chairman's long shadows--and occasionally basks in them, as on the repeated "Jilly" references in "My Blue Heaven." Still, it's artistically head and shoulders above most marketing-driven retro collections, an album that should delight the Connick faithful with its jazzy arrangements and bittersweet takes on the title track and "I Only Have Eyes For You"--and maybe win a few new converts willing to forgive the periodic genuflection to Sinatra. --Jerry McCulley
