Rapid Fire Reviews: Under The Covers, Overdone, Rightfully Sung
If all goes well there should be a number of rapid fire review posts going out this weekend the first of which is merely a pair of records I've been meaning to review for a while and mirror each other in a way that I feel very clever and very smart and very good at my job for thinking of when nobody else did /s, mostly. These are mostly covers albums by artists who have a very specific sound to thank for some of their original tracks and took a spin doing their own versions of some of the classic tunes from those sounds, whether it be Mexican folk music or delta blues.
Delta Kream - The Black Keys
Un Canto Por Mexico, Vol. II - Natalia Lafourcade
Part two of Natalia's renditions of classic Mexican folk songs is a record that I've been flirting with off and on for a few months since it came out. Since I'm not a native speaker and not as familiar with the original versions of these tracks I took my time pulling apart the various creative decisions she makes on the record given how much I've enjoyed her material in the past. Once again this record covers quite a bit of territory with a number of guests singers and musicians, a mix of easily digestible simples tunes back to back with multi-part compositionally winding cuts and most of all a blend of instrumentation the bounces between beautifully stark and explosively dense. The one undeniable truth of this record and all of Natalia's work is that her voice remains an absolute fucking force to be reckoned with. Which is why so many of her guest singers come off as either drastically outmatched or just flat out over preformed by Natalia's charisma and singing chops. Much like Vol. 1 of this series I absolutely adore the moments where Natalia is stripped back and paired with gentle strings and occasional bossa nova-esque guitars. Her performances are so incredibly compelling that she just commands your attention from start to finish. Unfortunately some of the more elaborate songs here and most of the evenly distributed duets didn't land with me quite as much as on previous projects. I don't think the instrumental palette is bad but it consistently fails to elevate the music in the same ways that blow me away when done on records over her past few albums. With that being said I still thing that this record is a treat that sounds to pleasant and has so much talent poured into it that I can recommend it to just about anyone even though the language and influences are probably outside a lot of readers wheelhouse. 7/10
After nearly two decades of playing their bluesy brand of rock and roll it was no surprise that The Black Keys decided to release a record paying tribute to one of their biggest influences, in fact it felt fitting. While the singles were indulgent I was much more familiar with some of the original tracks here than on Natalia's album and that made it easier to dive right into this record. Another thing that makes this an easy transition for people who are already fans of the band is that their music is heavily influenced by these delta songs so they do a good job of making them all sound like Black Keys tracks. When all is said and done it actually wasn't the more long winded tracks with instrumental jams that brought the record down, in fact some of them are my favorite. I think the albums achilles heel is the inescapable corniness of the era they are covering, which is a difficult tightrope walk. If you abandon those elements entirely you loose so much of what makes your renditions authentic but I can't deny that some of these songs have a hokeyness to them that I find difficult to tolerate even after hearing the originals. Thankfully they take up less time on the record and often come packaged with heavy riffs and those trademark bluesy vocals that make the kooky refrains a bit more digestible. While there is nothing on here that I would call absolutely essential there is a lot for Black Keys fans will certainly enjoy and it's more earnest than your average covers record. 6/10
