United States vs. Billie Holiday [Music From the Motion Picture]

The wait for a true follow-up to Andra Day's Grammy-nominated 2015 debut Cheers to the Fall continued well into 2021, mitigated -- the more expectant might say aggravated -- by an abundance of featured appearances, soundtrack recordings, and stray singles. It was extended by The United States vs. Billie Holiday, certainly not a typical side pursuit. Day at first rejected the offer to portray the titular pioneer, who revolutionized the art of singing during an extraordinarily troubled and tragically short life, as she felt she would be out of her depth, having never properly acted before. Day had chosen her stage name in honor of Holiday (nicknamed "Lady Day" by Lester Young), was open about her inspirations from the start, and had shown obvious big-screen potential, so an undertaking of this scale and specificity was only a matter of time. Day made the leap, and a shower of accolades had started by the time the film and soundtrack were given commercial release in February 2021. To the credit of Day and her partners, this 13-song set doesn't chart a course of plain sailing. It isn't merely a batch of attempted replications. Most imaginative is that a halting version of "Strange Fruit," the horrific anti-lynching song Holiday turned into the most significant recording in American history, is followed by an original ("Tigress & Tweed"), a dusty hip-hop soul track of perseverance that references what precedes it. Day made that new song with Cheers to the Fall collaborator Raphael Saadiq, while one with a foundation in Holiday's slinking mode ("Break Your Fall") was produced by Warren Felder. (Felder also handles the third original, fronted by Charlie Wilson and Sebastian Kole.) "Strange Fruit" and the other inclusions that Holiday either originated or popularized -- a balanced mix of ballads and swing -- are produced with expected flair by Salaam Remi. Day evokes Holiday while putting enough of her own creativity and life experience into it to never sound like she's shooting for flawless reenactment. It's a feat of creativity and reverence. ~ Andy Kellman