Door 13 Music 2018
Covers. Volume I
Decade of secret missions and covert actions brings forth delicious fruits.
After the triumph that was "Tygerland", Cary Grace had to secure her foothold on success and, following the issue of the Brit-based artist’s first concert album, she comes up with this collection of rarities. Originally scattered across various singles, limited-run releases and download-only offerings, recorded between 2007 and 2017, the magic numbers gathered here attempt the impossible by implementing enhanced psychedelia to what’s already been spaced-out enough…
…except, perhaps, for “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” where Grace wraps Dylan’s wisdom in an eerie drone before drowning it in a strummed caress and lap-steel-led seductiveness, yet sexing up the source drift isn’t her objective. That’s why Cary wouldn’t go for deep cuts, limiting her digging to PINK FLOYD’s cinematic “Cirrus Minor” – delivered with ghostly languor and spectral solemnity – and, for those outside the Kraut-zone – “Archangel’s Thunderbird” from the AMON DÜÜL II lore, given exhilarating clangor now. There’s boisterous edge to Bowie’s “Queen Bitch” and “Black Country Rock” receives a wonderfully extended prog wigout at the end, but her synthesizer smears over “Sound And Vision” are rather subtle to make a difference…
…which can’t be said about “2000 Light Years From Home” as THE ROLLING STONES’ classic has a whole new dimension to it – crystal-clear and slightly elegiac, falling in and out of dynamic pocket to set controls for the heart of a distant sun, while “Fat Old Sun” is also taken further into folk left-field and guitar-and-organ-swept pastures than FLOYD ever dared to develop their ballad. Unfortunately, Grace’s reading of “Tales Of Brave Ulysses” can’t match the energy CREAM applied to the piece, despite all the wah-wah thrown in – but the vocals offering a female, Penelope perspective perform quite a magic trick and imbue the gem with a different kind of beauty.
Given, it’s “Volume 1” of Cary’s covers project, the intrigue has been set in anticipation of the next issue.
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