With her new album and show, Melissa Errico maintains her status as a cabaret great.

Theme albums can be a rather tricky undertaking sometimes… not for the musical artist – for the listener. Naturally, the artists have a wonderful time conceiving and curating and, then, recording their album of songs by The Carpenters, songs sung in Spanish, songs about winter, water, or bucking the system. If the artists are lucky, the collections they create rise to the top with ease. Remember the excellence of Barbra Streisand‘s albums that centered around the French language and classical music, respectively? Or maybe the John Pizzarelli tribute CD to The Beatles sticks out as a win? When considering an entire album of torch songs, though, one might ask oneself, “Does the CD come with a straight razor?” or perhaps an entire CD of lullabies might tend to run treacly… it all has to go on a case by case basis.

In the case of the new Melissa Errico album OUT OF THE DARK: THE FILM NOIR PROJECT, there is no question that the theme, the collection, the creation is, from start to finish, a winner.