In Brief

Surely no one would mistake Simon’s whiny, overwrought delivery for that of a chanteuse--no one, that is, except Simon herself, whose third misguided collection of standards includes songs taken from and evocative of film noir. The orchestrations are tastefully lush, but hearing Simon rip into such torchy classics as “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and “Don’t Smoke in Bed” is like watching a great old movie colorized with crayons.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).

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Hear the Music

* Excerpts from these albums and other recent releases are available on The Times’ World Wide Web site. Point your browser to: https://www.latimes.com/soundclips