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Editorial Reviews

Smart and sassy women vocalists may sound like the flavor of 2008, but Lucy Woodward has been blazing her own path since the 2003 release of her Top 40 hit “Dumb Girls.” Hold the damage and call off the paparazzi, though -- Woodward knows the difference between confidence and braggadocio; unlike most of today’s crop of young soul singers, there’s no imminent train wreck in her future. The intervening five years have amped up the funk and hip-hop quotient of her music, and on Lucy Woodward…Is Hot and Bothered, she hooks up with Itaal Shur, who co-wrote Santana’s monster “Smooth.” Mixing her convincing vocals and songwriting with his pop smarts yields a potent and well-rounded portrait of a young singer enviably in control. From the hip-hop-soul-styled “Use What I Got” to the small-combo blues of “Geographical Cure,” Woodward invests contemporary productions with jazzy flourishes -- imagine Amy Winehouse and Duffy with an additional decade of musical references. “Love Is Gonna Getcha” mines a trip-hop groove with John Barry orchestrations and disco-era harmonies, with Woodward’s golden vocals bouncing along the top. Its companion track, “Too Much to Live For,” kicks all of the above into higher gear and adds a gospel breakdown. The London-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s versatility is unsurprising if you consider her pedigree as the daughter of a belly-dancing opera singer and a composer-conductor. On the torchy “Slow Recovery,” though, Woodward shows off her most valuable asset: a flexible, sensual voice with a seductive rasp that should be leaving listeners hot and bothered for a long time to come. Mark Schwartz, Barnes & Noble

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