For his Nettwerk Records debut, singer/songwriter Jay Brannan has chosen a collection of covers, bookended by two original songs on In Living Cover. The song selection is hardly a surprise to anyone who has followed Brannan’s career – the choices here are a chartered course through his influences – which means there’s sadly no irony or any of that cheeky Brannan humor that infuses his own songs. Each song here drips with sincerity and Brannan’s soothing tenor. Unfortunately, some of his popular live renditions of pop songs (notably his take on “Umbrella”) are not here. The two new tracks, “Beautifully” and “Drowning” are a good match for the rest of the album – a little sombre, a little intimate. Hopefully, they’re harbingers of an album of original material soon to come. But if anything, In Living Cover cements Brannan’s status as a premiere song interpreter in today’s acoustical landscape.
Justifiably angry lyrics are the core of MTV fave Cage’s third album, Depart From Me. While the painful deatils of Cage’s own childhood are aired thoughout the album much more than before (from the opening drama of ”Nothing Left to Say” to the declarations of strength on the blippy title track) there’s more substance here than just whining about the woes of a storied youth. By waiting until album three to exorcise some of his demons – abusive parents, drug addiction, misdiagnosis, loss of a sibling – Cage has created a musically interesting collection, not just a shockingly confessional one.
Céu drops her second full length, Vagrosa, on Six Degrees. With a little more restraint than her debut, Vagrosa cuts a more daring figure in the Brazilian singer. With rhythms borrowed from dancehall and American jazz, this is far from another typical samba torch song collection. With only one song in English, Céu’s voice is more of an instrument to non-Portuguese ears, but it never gets annoying, even when she makes it a little percussive. She has a mini tour this summer to show it all off.
Indie rock band stellastarr* unleash their third album, Civilized, which includes the single “Graffiti Eyes.” This is the first release on the band’s own label, Bloated Wife Records.
Comments on this entry are closed.