DESTINATION MOON!

Dance/ R&B Diva Deborah Cox somehow managed to emerge from her late-90s heyday ("Things Just Aint the Same"/ "Nobody's Supposed to be Here"), when her urban-flavored album tracks were transformed by remixer Hex Hector into massive big-room club stompers that virtually defined the 1998 club landscape, to find herself planted squarely in 2008, via 1956. DESTINATION MOON is her homage to vocalist extraordinaire Dinah Washington, and is a sultry and swinging collection of a dozen key tracks from Washington's impressive canon. Its easy to be a cynic when familiar voices from the past who have become less- and less-familair as the years go by find themselves exploiting the classics to make themselves relevant again. Linda Ronstadt, most notably, paved the way with her Nelson Riddle trilogy more than 2 decades ago. Rod Stewart has gone back to the well 4 times with his "Songbook" series, each one more successful than the last. Cox certainly doesnt have the name recognition of a Stewart or Ronstadt, so I was more inclined to give her a pass and allow for the possibility that this effort wasnt purely motivated by easy sales. Plus, she's got a great voice-- I was excited to give it a listen, and the gamble paid off! Washington's songs are standards, yes, but ones that were ready to be revisited, and ready to be reinterpreted. These are not the same old handful of tracks that turn up on every nostalgia collection, and Cox's vocal chops more than rise to the occasion. She swings, she belts the blues, and she croons. Best (and title) track: her thrilling take on Dinah's signature "Destination Moon"... A definite Fred's Pick!