Nellie McKay

Get Away From Me, the title of singer/songwriter Nellie Mckay's debut album, was a play on two titles by romantic female vocalists who became popular in the early 2000s: Norah Jones' Come Away With Me and Jane Monheit's Come Dream With Me. But while Mckay shares some of Jones' and Monheit's influences -- vocal jazz, cabaret, pre-rock Brill Building pop, torch singing -- and has some things in common with them melodically, it would be a huge mistake to lump her in with Jones, Monheit, and Diana Krall. Those jazz or jazz-influenced pop artists tend to be romantically comforting, whereas Mckay's lyrics can be every bit as cutting, edgy, and biting as Alanis Morissette or Pink -- and to lump Mckay in with Jones, Monheit, and Krall ignores the fact that her work is distinctive and impressively unorthodox.



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