Some voices soak through the skin like the morning dew on a hot summer’s day no matter the weather. British singer-songwriter Rumer, whose nine-track In Session was released yesterday, possesses just such a dulcet tone; it seeps through the pores and to the heart, encasing it in a gentle warmth that words—even those of my favorite poets—can’t properly describe.
Seasons of My Soul, her 2010 debut, ranks among my all-time favorite albums; as I noted in my first post to the Hatboro-Horsham Patch in 2012, it’s “an atmospheric song cycle that’s teeming with soulful, knowing lyrics and melodies that wrap themselves around the heart.” She hasn’t been the most prolific of singer-songwriters, however, thanks to life, love, marriage and motherhood, plus writer’s block. Boys Don’t Cry, a stopgap from 2012, was (and remains) a sterling all-covers set that explores the male psyche. (As with Seasons, the original UK release is superior to the US version.) Her last album of all-new material, Into Colour, arrived in 2015, while the decade since has featured two additional all-cover outings—a sublime Bacharach-David set, This Girl’s in Love, plus an excursion into country music, Nashville Tears—as well as Live from Lafayette. (She’s shared a few odds-and-sods sets along the way, too.)
She’s said that she has an album of all-new material in the works, but until then In Session is yet another holding pattern pressed to wax. It features past classics, including six Seasons of My Soul songs, re-recorded with the jazz-funk collective known as Redtenbacher’s Funkestr. The idea to team with them stems back a few years, to when they invited her to sing on a Joni Mitchell tribute album; she enjoyed the experience so much that she asked them to back her at a December 2023 concert. That, in turn, led to this studio set.
While nuances between these versions and the originals can be heard and discerned, most notably on “Dangerous,” by and large the differences are negligible. It’s a best-of playlist that features re-recorded renditions of songs many of us have heard countless times. A part of me wishes she’d have undertaken yet another covers collection, mixing and matching melodies and rhymes from Tasmin Archer, Jackson Browne, the Brothers Gibb, Melissa Manchester and Roberta Flack, perhaps Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello, too. But…yeah. That voice. Those lyrics. The sumptuous musical refrains and restrained rhythms retain the old-school adult contemporary vibe she’s exuded from the get-go, while her voice has never sounded better. It’s worth the purchase price.
The Old Grey Cat 