Ute Lemper has developed a reputation as a successor to
Lotte Lenya with the looks of Greta Garbo or
Marlene Dietrich, a northern European chanteuse with a taste for the decadent sound of Weimar Germany; she is arguably the definitive interpreter of
Kurt Weill for her generation.
Punishing Kiss, her first album devoted primarily to songs by contemporary songwriters, extends her reputation by incorporating the work of artists influenced by
Weill, including
Elvis Costello,
Tom Waits, and
Nick Cave. But the primary collaborators on the album are the members of the British group
the Divine Comedy, who provide the backing tracks on most of the songs, and three compositions by group members
Neil Hannon and
Joby Talbot, with
Hannon singing duet vocals on three tracks. The sound of
Weill -- the early
Weill -- pervades the album, starting with the inclusion of his "Tango Ballad," a song in which a couple reminisce about the good old days when he was a procurer and she a prostitute. Such a decadent tone continues in
Cave's "Little Water Song" (sung by a woman who is being drowned by her lover),
Costello's complex tales of romantic dissolution, and in the characteristic
Waits songs of romantic low-life types. Among the most impressive selections, however, are the
Divine Comedy tracks "The Case Continues" and "Split," which finds
Lemper and
Hannon hurling witty insults at each other. From its extensive set of photographs of
Lemper in black leather posing in a decaying building to the dramatic arrangements and the singer's powerful, precise vocals, this is highly stylized art music given a pop element by its composers. A daring effort, it deserves more of an audience than it is likely to get, at least at first. ~ William Ruhlmann