During lockdown and quarantine, many people spent an inordinate amount of time bingeing TV shows and movies, searching through Netflix, Amazon’s Prime, and other streaming services, for the perfect film or series or genre to fill their days and occupy their minds. Singer Melissa Errico immersed herself in the shadowy, mysterious, dangerously romantic world of film noir—a world filled with glamorous damsels in distress, downtrodden private detectives, a world of black and white and gray in which the steamy romance that filled its stories and images rarely ended happily. If it didn’t already exist, the torch song would have had to have been created as its soundtrack.
On her new CD, Out of the Dark: The Film Noir Project, Errico digs deep into that musical archive, recreating its foreboding romance, its hope and despair, its classic sound, and even stretches it out in a few surprising directions. She also recreates herself as the romantic lead of these tales—one can picture the perfectly coiffed hair, the bright red lips, the gown, the (politically incorrect) cigarette in the bejeweled holder. The “soundtrack” for this endeavor features the exquisite pianist Tedd Firth, along with a host of fine musicians, immaculately produced by David Finck. While the album is a bit overlong at 17 tracks, and a few of the more contemporary choices could have been excised to allow a bit more breathing room in the remaining standards, this is a deep dive into a classic genre that is well worth a listen.
The verse of the opener, “Angel Eyes” (Matt Dennis, Earl Brent), is the perfect invitation to join the singer on this welcome escape from the restrictive, depressing world of masks, social distancing, and vaccinations. The song is quintessentially noir, with its imagery of smoky bars, late night piano, and the dangerously wary protagonist. I have always felt that this poor soul has a gun in her pocket as she walks out into the lonely night. A Broadway answer to Hollywood comes next, with a wonderfully moody take on “With Every Breath I Take” (Cy Coleman, David Zippel, from the stage musical City of Angels) with a beautifully mournful sax solo by David Mann. While this song often falls victim to overwrought delivery, Errico’s controlled yet passionate delivery is perfect, down to the dramatically held final note.