The Boy Next Door

1	The Best Is Yet to Come 3:28
2	The Boy Next Door 3:43
3	The Trolley Song 4:06
4	Say It Isn't So 4:43
5	Too Darn Hot 3:28
6	Makin' Whoopee 3:11
7	What the World Needs Now Is Love 4:12
8	You've Got a Friend 4:21
9	I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 4:59
10	Ooh-Shoo-Be-Doo-Bee 3:07
11	People Will Say We're in Love 3:48
12	'Tis Autumn 4:32
13	All I Do Is Dream of You 3:28
14	I Get Along Without You Very Well 3:28
15	You're the Top 2:31
16	Bookends 1:16

Barnes & Noble

Stacey Kent, one of the most accomplished jazz singers of her generation, turns her attention to a panoply of her musical heroes on The Boy Next Door, a breakthrough project that should cement the British singer’s reputation in the States and elsewhere. Not that Kent needs to raise a ruckus to gain our attention. Subtlety and inference are her secret weapons: Even when tackling a swinger like the Judy Garland signature tune “The Trolley Song,” Kent keeps matters brilliantly under control, her dead-center sense of rhythm and sly vocal inflection winning the day again and again. Kent’s heroes include classic and popular singers, magisterial composers, and world-class jazz instrumentalists, and the superior songs associated with them. The repertoire is appropriately diverse (Paul Simon’s “Bookends,” Duke Ellington’s “I Got It Bad and That Ain’t Good,” Burt Bacharach’s “What the World Needs Now,” Cole Porter’s “You’re The Top”), and Kent handles it all with confidence and panache. Kent’s earlier albums showed promise -- here she delivers the power punch, in a velvet glove, that is. Steve Futterman

All Music Guide

Wrapping her sweet voice around songs by male singers she admires, Stacey Kent delivers another pleasant and low-key album with The Boy Next Door. Kent's tribute choices range from traditional pop (Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett) to mainstream jazz instrumentalists (Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie) to the softer side of rock (James Taylor, Simon and -- unmentioned in the liner notes -- Garfunkel). With a gentle conviction akin to early Blossom Dearie without the cheeky flair, the album makes for breezy listening. The 16 tracks don't differ enough in tone, making the album a bit too long, but individual moments of warm openhearted excellence make it worthwhile. The sentimentality of "Bookends" or "'Tis Autumn" suit her precious delivery well, while the sly moments of "Makin' Whoopee" feel out of the singer's reach. The bandmembers stay out of the way for the most part, waiting for their solos rather than interacting much with Kent. Drummer Matt Home's light but lively style is especially accommodating and guitarist Colin Oxley's percussive take on "Too Darn Hot" ends up being the album's greatest moment. David Jeffries