Austin-born Hailey Tuck dropped out of military boarding school at the age of eighteen to move to Paris, and follow her dreams of becoming a jazz singer. She honed her distinctive sound in the jazz clubs of Paris, most notably Le Buzz and the now-defunct Tres Honoree. Between 2014 and 2016, she self-launched a trio of EPs, whilst starting to making a name for herself outside of France, appearing at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival in the UK, and touring Europe and Asia. In 2017, she landed a deal with Sony Music, and Junk is her debut album.
The record is produced by Larry Klein, who has surrounded her with top-class musicians, and lends the album some nice touches. Hailey Tuck looks like a 1930s movie star, with her dark bob and vintage clothes, and has a voice to match; it’s subtle and languid, not afraid to linger behind the beat, and there are hints of Billie Holiday and Madeleine Peyroux, which can’t be a bad thing.
The album is a mixture of well-chosen covers and a couple of cool originals. The album opens with a Leonard Cohen tune, That Don’t Make It Junk, which impresses with its acoustic strum, subtle electric guitar touches and warm organ, with Tuck’s effortless voice front and centre. There’s a brief electric guitar solo, but it’s kept short and sweet. Bert Berns’s Cry To Me – a hit for Solomon Burke follows – more pop than jazz, but sweet nonetheless.
Cactus Tree is an early Joni Mitchell tune, from Song To A Seagull. Tuck sings its beautifully; musically there are some nice touches, with subtle electric guitar and piano, but compared with acoustic guitar of the original, the music felt relegated to the background.
Taken on it’s own, Bernstein’s Some Other Time is lovely, but by this stage the album felt a little ballad-heavy. Klein leaves Tuck’s voice front-and-centre, and with the music left in the background on most tunes, it started to sound a little samey.
Things perk up a little with nice versions of Colin Blunstone’s Say You Don’t Mind and Alcohol by Ray Davies, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that this is jazz—inflected pop, rather than jazz.
There are two originals – Last In Line is another ballad, and demonstrates that Tuck is a promising lyricist – but My Chemical Life is more interesting, with a Los Lobos-like groove. Again, not jazz, but musically more satisfying, and perhaps a better indicator of what Tuck is capable of.
Trouble In Mind was originally an old vaudeville song, and is well-suited to Tuck’s voice. There’s even room for an organ solo, but again, it’s all too brief.
The album closes with two interesting covers – Underwear by Pulp, which works surprisingly well, and the title track, by Paul McCartney, which is my favourite song on the album, with its irresistible melody.
At it’s best, Junk is quite sublime – Hailey Tuck’s voice is gorgeous, and she is a skilled interpreter of songs, putting her own spin on the lyrics of some of the great songwriters. I appreciate that many people listen to individual songs these days, but taken as a whole, I found the album a little too one-paced. Next time around I’d like to hear Hailey Tuck working with her own band, rather than studio musicians. Nevertheless, this is a fine debut album; it’s already getting heavy airplay in Europe, and will certainly appeal to fans of Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot and Norah Jones.