In Living Cover

by Jay Brannan

Overview

Jay Brannan dives into his iPod collection with In Living Cover, a collection of cover songs and original material. The two original tunes featured here -- "Beautifully" and "Drowning" -- take their cues from the Lilith Fair school of songwriting, mixing bookish lyrics with bursts of acoustic guitar. The effect is reinforced by Brannan's voice, a somewhat androgynous tenor whose range and tone serve him well on the covers, too. Joni Mitchell, Ani DiFranco, and the Cranberries all serve as source material for Brannan's six cover songs, and he pays tribute to those artists with soft, acoustic renditions of their hits. When he ditches the acoustic guitar and performs DiFranco's "Both Hands" with an a cappella arrangement, the result is striking, due in no small part to his imaginative reinterpretation of the original. During songs like "The Freshman," however, In Living Cover sounds more like a Valentine's Day present from a doting boyfriend, with little flair in the performance and little imagination in the presentation. The Cranberries' "Zombie" fairs similarly, and this album ultimately emerges as an erratic project, its highlights spread too thinly to do much good. ~ Andrew Leahey

Product Details

Release Date:	06/23/2009
Label:	Great Depression Records / Nettwerk
UPC:	0067003086929
Rank:	107656

Tracks

1. Beautifully
2. Say It's Possible
3. All I Want
4. Blowin' in the Wind
5. The Freshman
6. Good Mother
7. Both Hands
8. Zombie
9. Drowning

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jay Brannan   Primary Artist
Drew Brody   Vocals,Piano,Bass,Guitar
Greg Heffernan   Cello

Technical Credits

Jay Brannan   Producer,Composer
Terra Naomi   Composer
The Verve Pipe   Composer
Mark Chalecki   Mastering
Joni Mitchell   Composer
Jann Arden   Composer
Bob Dylan   Composer
Ani DiFranco   Composer
Pedro Fanti   Artwork
Beatriz Milhomem   Artwork
Drew Brody   Producer,Engineer,Mixing
M. Clark   Photography
Scott Starrett   Piano Arrangement
The Cranberries   Composer