Arden "Uncovers" Gems
T. Yap | Sydney, NSW, Australia | 03/06/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Prime Cuts: Solitaire, Downtown, You're So Vain
To designate Arden as a one-hit wonder with her emotionally ravaging top 20 smash "Insensitive" is a caricature. Across the border on the 49th parallel, this chanteuse has been amassed with 8 Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) and she was also the receipt of the esteemed 2000 Prairie Awards Songwriter of the Year. However, for "Uncover Me," her ninth studio album, Arden has decided to give her writing kilt a rest. Save for one newly penned tune, this album finds Arden covering a wide array of music from Cat Stevens to the Carpenters to Pat Benator to Carly Simon to Pertula Clark to Dusty Springfield. Naturally such an adventurous excursion lend itself to being one of the most vocally challenging endeavors Arden has had ever committed on record. Unable to divorce herself totally from the originals, she does vocally import Karen Carpenter's vulnerability, Carly Simon's spitefulness, and her own skeptical bite, making Arden a much richer composite vocalist.
If a song could cut the heart like a stiletto it has to be the Carpenters' "Solitaire." A probable biography of Karen Carpenter's vacuous quest for true love, this piano-based ballad finds Arden cribbing Carpenter's forlorn and despairing purrs with great effect. Pertula Clark's "Downtown," though traffics with a carefree disposition, guises an ache of loneliness where the song's protagonist tries to forget her pain vis-à-vis window shopping. Arden's new composition "Counterfeit Heart," though not as melodramatic as the aforementioned tracks, is still a heart wrenching ballad of misplaced trust and broken promises to which Arden conveys with mastery. Also, emotionally lacerating is Janis Ian's "At Seventeen," a song of struggling identity that still speaks today as it did over thirty years ago.
Not one to be victimized by life's circumstances, "You're So Vain" is the perfect "get even" type of a song that Arden performs with sass and attitude. While she sticks too close to Pat Benator's "Love is a Battlefield" that Arden veers dangerously close to being enmeshed into a Benator soundalike. Similarly, a couple of misfires comes in the form of songs that are more "inspirational" in nature. Cat Stevens' "Peace Train," despite being a well crafted song about world peace with those intricate spiritual/Biblical overtones, has been done to death. And sadly Arden adds nothing new to it. Likewise, "Bring Home the Boys," with its over-produced backing, somehow gags Arden's performance.
Nevertheless, as far as cover albums go, "Uncover Me," albeit some too obvious choices, is a well selected opus. Further, the highlight is Arden's interpretative skill: soaking up the best emotional nuances of the originals and adding her own razor-sharp affections, these paeans beget an unflinching realism that is hard to resist. After all these years of experience, Arden has triumphantly channeled her best into the articulation of these songs."
Wasted Opportunity
R. M. Ettinger | Cleveland Heights, OH USA | 07/27/2007
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Cover albums are risky at best. Rare is it that an artist covers unknown material and rarer that they do a better job than the popular original they will inevitably record.
Unfortunately, Jann Arden falls into this all to easy trap. That's not to say there are not good attempts and bold song selection choices.
I was more than mildly surprised by the take on "California Dreamin'". She certainly does a better job than Matthew Sweet/Susannah Hoffs did with "Monday Monday".
Even the cover of "Love is a Battlefield" was unexpected and not unpleasant. Some of the background vocals could have been cut, but she tackles it better than I would have thought. "Solitaire" is not bad either.
But then things do go south for me. 10,000 Maniacs did a much better cover of "Peace Train". Things don't go well for "You're So Vain" or "Downtown" and I don't know that "Son of a Preacher Man" should ever be touched. Some songs are too iconic to be successful at - no matter who you are.
The biggest disappointment is "At Seventeen". If it had to be covered, Arden would be a perfect artist to attempt it. But the drums and brushes in the back make is sound like a lounge band cover performing at the airport Holiday Inn. A shame."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1