AJ Lambert ★★★

Careful You ALPHA PUP. DL/LP

Sinatra scion carries on the interpretive gene.

On her debut album, AJ Lambert covers Glad I’m Not A Kennedy by New Zealand singer-songwriter Shona Laing. It’s a sly joke: as daughter of Nancy and granddaughter of Frank, Lambert’s Sinatra heritage not only comes with close Camelot ties but is also scarcely less weighty. Careful You never downplays her DNA – with her band, she tackles Sleep Warm and turns I’ll Be Seeing You into an ominous cabaret drowse – but there is also a renegade flair to her choice of covers, pressing Chris Bell’s You And Your Sister into supper-jazz sequins, unravelling the sentimental innards of TV On The Radio’s Careful You and accentuating the brassy swing on John Cale’s already manic Cleo. Despite the Vegas veneer, there’s an underlying punk energy, like a cocktail dress with a tattoo at the neckline, a combined act of tribute and subversion.