Nellie McKay

In many ways, Nellie McKay's album of songs famously recorded by Doris Day feels inevitable. The vintage-loving cabaret pop tart has Day's breathy purr down pat (and they even look alike). But Normal might be the weirdest thing this artist known for torch songs about zombies has ever done. She streamlines her usual quirky kitsch into a re-creation so pitch-perfect, so straight that one feels like the crazy must be just barely contained, revealing itself only in slightly offbeat touches (like the steel pans on "Dig It"). In other words, she stops punching us with her zaniness and postulates her own history of Day.