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Always: Kelli O'Hara [Ghostlight 8-3334]
Kelli O'Hara has been performing all over town this past season; nightclubs, concerts, staged concert versions, and more. She has also released her second solo CD, "Always," as in Irving Berlin's "I'll be loving you, always." O'Hara always gives us good performances, it seems, even when she was forced to endure five month's-worth of Frank Wildhorn's Dracula at the Belasco. (As a reward, she got to move right into Light in the Piazza — which, under the circumstances, was quite a reward indeed.)

The new CD continues O'Hara's winning streak, offering a variety of songs in attractive performances. Something prevents me from being enthusiastic, alas. Some of the tracks I can happily listen to repeatedly — "What More Do I Need?" "How Glory Goes," "Finishing the Hat," "This Nearly Was Mine"; others, not. You would think that O'Hara and "He Loves Me" — a distaff version of the title tune from the Bock & Harnick musical — would make a delicious mix, but it doesn't.

Three of the four relatively new selections are less than inviting; the exception is "Another Life" from Jason Robert Brown's upcoming musicalization of The Bridges of Madison County, which sounds very nice indeed. One of these items is something called "They Don't Let You in the Opera (If You're a Country Star)," in which Ms. O'Hara clowns, trills, and gives birth. Not literally, but close enough. This piece of special material is by Dan Lipton (music director and co-producer of the CD) and David Rossmer. O'Hara performed this at the Cafe Carlyle in 2009, at which point I found it quite amusing. Maybe you have to see it live; maybe it doesn't hold up to repeated hearings; maybe it simply doesn't translate to CD. All I can say is, I needn't hear it again.