Personally, I don’t care much for cover bands. As far as I’m concerned, being able to rehash familiar songs note for note isn’t so much about talent as it is about the ability to merely mimic. On the other hand, hearing an artist with his or her own distinctive identity putting an individual stamp on someone else’s material can be a revelatory experience, an otherwise unexpected encounter that puts both the song and the performer into an entirely new light.
There’s no better example than the latest offering from the esteemed studios of KCRW, one of the leading public radio stations in the nation and a beacon for creative programming. At a time when the airwaves are getting more and more restrictive, KCRW makes a point of consistently exposing up-and-coming artists, and this new installment in the Sounds Eclectic series, culled from the archives of their remarkable program Morning Becomes Eclectic, may be their most engaging yet.
While some of the choices seem oddly juxtaposed - a surprisingly straight-ahead cover of “Gentle On My Mind” rendered by REM, an unexpectedly downcast take on “Let’s Dance” by the typically dour M Ward, Damien Rice’s stripped down version of “Creep” - they do what the best remakes aspire to, that is, to strip the songs down to the basics and refocus on the melodies. That’s also the case with a sweetly harmonious “Harvest” from Rufus Wainwright and Chris Stills, Girls In Hawaii’s easy amble on another Neil Young oldie, “Out On The Weekend”, and Robert Plant’s unplugged remake of the Led Zep classic, “Black Dog”. However, the highlight may be k.d. lang’s soulful waxing on Leonard Cohen’s haunting “Hallelujah”, which, like the recent revival of Joni Mitchell’s “River”, seems to fill the bill whenever there’s a need for melancholy mood songs.
~ Lee Zimmerman
