Sunday 28 June 2015

Tim Shelton - Jackson Browne Revisited, album review

Does Diligence Deliver?

I was wondering if it would be possible to go wrong with covering songs of this quality, and of course one could: crap renditions; hitting the impenetrable wall of the super-fan's adherence to originals. This cover album avoids both possibilities, and the Country 'take' provides just enough sense of interpretation on songs that already have some 'country' blood in their veins, with Sheldon's generic vocal adding sufficient anchorage to that transformation. What will always carry such an album is, however, and without any serious question, the brilliance of the songcraft itself. These are straightforward performances and productions, with vocal harmonies that sustain the listenable pleasure. Where it can fall a little short is with a song like The Pretender when the emotive peaks of the original are flattened out by the polish of a diligent rather than empathetic version.


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