Worrisome Heart by Melody Gardot

Worrisome Heart, Melody Gardot's debut studio album, first appeared as an independent release in 2006 before Verve picked it up and put it back out in America, with Universal Classics and Jazz handling it overseas. She cut fresh versions of songs from her earlier EP, Some Lessons: The Bedroom Sessions, and added tracks nobody had heard.

The backstory is hard to shake. At 19 Gardot was struck by a car and suffered a serious head injury, and music became part of how she recovered; she still often performs seated, in dark sunglasses, to shield herself from sensory overload. None of that makes the record a sob story. It's a late-night jazz and blues set, smoky and understated, with Gardot's contralto barely rising above a murmur and the arrangements leaving plenty of room for her to breathe.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.