| Secular Hymns | |
| Type: | studio |
| Artist: | Madeleine Peyroux |
| Cover: | Madeleine Peyroux - Secular Hymns.jpg |
| Alt: | A photo with Peyroux seated behind a window |
| Recorded: | January 12–13, 2016 |
| Studio: | Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Great Milton, England, UK |
| Genre: | Vocal jazz |
| Language: | English |
| Label: | Impulse! |
| Producer: | Madeleine Peyroux |
| Prev Year: | 2014 |
| Next Title: | Anthem |
| Next Year: | 2018 |
Secular Hymns is a 2014 studio album by American vocal jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux. It has received positive reviews by critics.
Editors at AnyDecentMusic? rated this album a 7.2 out of 10, aggregating six scores.
Editors at AllMusic rated this album 4 out of 5 stars, with critic Matt Collar writing that this album "finds the vocalist/guitarist delivering a stripped-down, largely acoustic set of warm, eclectic cover tunes... that's a 180-degree turn from her previous effort, 2013's ambitious homage to Ray Charles, The Blue Room. At The Arts Desk, Mark Kidel rated this album 3 out of 5 stars and characterized Peyroux as a "sultry cabaret chanteuse with shades of late-night jazz and the endemic melancholy of the blues" but complains that "this is blues lite, too clean for comfort". DownBeats J. Poet gave 5 out of 5 stars to Secular Hymns and praised the ensemble on this recording: "Herington’s guitar adds blue, sliding, sustained notes that echo the crying tone of a steel guitar to support Peyroux’s somber vocal". John Fordham of The Guardian praised the combination of "intimate exuberance and classic songs" captured in the live-in-studio setting and rated this release 4 of 5 stars.
In The Irish Times Cormac Larkin rated Secular Hymns 3 out of 5 stars, ending "they’re the sort of songs that can sound hollow and insincere in the wrong hands, but Peyroux delivers every word like her life depends on it". Christopher Loudon of JazzTimes called the blending of blues music, Gospel music, and jazz "a marvelous mélange". The Observers Dave Gelly scored this release 4 of 5 stars for "the warm intimacy of her voice and the incisive clarity of the arrangements". Writing for PopMatters, Steve Horowitz a 7 out of 10, summing up that "Peyroux offers fine performances, but they are hers and not the originals" and these songs are "mostly well-known classics from the past—they aren’t records meant to be broken but to be replayed again for their own merits".
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