That Leonard Cohen is one of Madeleine Peyroux's key musical touchstones is clearly evidenced by her interpretations of ‘Dance Me To The End Of Love’, ‘Blue Alert’, ‘Half The Perfect World’ and ‘Bird on the Wire’. In case any further proof was needed, Cohen's iconic ‘Anthem’ provides the title-track and emotional centrepiece for this, Peyroux's eighth studio album. Of equal gravitas is the album's penultimate track, a profoundly beautiful (and slightly truncated) setting of Paul Éluard's 1942 ode to freedom penned during the German occupation of France, ‘Liberté’, set to music by Peyroux and album producer Larry Klein. Elsewhere, album opener ‘On My Own’ and ‘On A Sunday Afternoon’ return to the easy mid-tempo groove which Peyroux has made something of a hallmark, while the slinky Fender Rhodes and sly observations of ‘Party Time’ irrevocably call to mind the great Steely Dan. From the haunting ‘Lullaby’ to the evocative ‘Last Night When We Were Young’, Peyroux and her collaborators combine a songwriter's ear for a melodic hook with a poet's sense of mood.