Photo of Margaret Glaspy by Ebru Yildiz
Cover songs are the inadvertent theme for this week’s edition of First Thought Fridays: of our five entries, two are covers-only EPs and another has an attention-grabbing song reimagining of its own. It was an embarrassment of riches this week, as I didn’t even get to two more releases I really wanted to check out: the Chameleons’ comeback LP Arctic Moon (their first in 24 years!) Jens Lekman’s Songs for Other People’s Weddings, a companion piece to a new novel by David Levithan loosely based on Lekman’s life as a wedding performer about a singer who makes a living writing custom songs for other people’s weddings but who can’t capture love in his own life. I look forward to checking out both in the near future, but for now, here’s what I checked out this week:
Margaret Glaspy, The Golden Heart Protector (ATO Records): After her spectacularly spiky third album (2023’s Echo the Diamond), Margaret Glaspy dialed back to just her acoustic guitar for The Sun Doesn’t Think, my favorite EP released last year. Her new covers EP, The Golden Heart Protector, is similarly unadorned: each of its seven songs features just Glaspy’s voice, acoustic guitar, piano, maybe a little subtle synth or organ way off in the background, and (on all but one track) a special guest, with nary a percussion instrument to be found.
Like all the best covers, Glaspy finds new approaches to songs that maintain their essence, resulting in versions that are appealing whether you’re a fan of Glaspy, or the original songs, or both. Highlights include Glaspy and Norah Jones’ beautifully austere take on Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” (Glaspy’s acoustic strums and Jones’ gently jazzy piano blend as wonderfully as their voices), Andrew Bird adding an aching violin solo to Rufus Wainwright’s “Sometimes You Need,” the Madison Cunningham-backed cover of the Magnetic Fields classic “The Book of Love,” and the spacious, bluesy guitars added to Lucinda Williams’ “Fruits of My Labor” by Glaspy’s husband, Julian Lage. Interestingly, the guest stars pretty much all take on supporting roles, only singing harmony/backing vocals rather than co-leads—the only songs treated as a duet are “The Book of Love” and the finale, the Jackson Browne-penned Nico classic “These Days” with British singer-songwriter James Bay. It’s a great collection, with only one song that didn’t land for me (Blake Mills’ “Curable Disease” featuring Alam Kahn, though maybe that’s a me problem as I’m not familiar with Mills or Kahn), and an excellent introduction to the joys to be found elsewhere in Glaspy’s catalog. Will I listen again?: Absolutely.
Iron and Wine & Ben Bridwell, Making Good Time, (self-released): Back in 2015, Ben Bridwell (frontman of Band of Horses) and Sam Beam (the singer-songwriter better known as Iron & Wine) teamed up for a well-received covers LP, Sing into My Mouth. With their two bands heading out on the road together, Bridwell and Beam have teamed back up to craft a tour souvenir featuring five new covers. These covers are a little less sparse than Margaret Glaspy’s in the above review (the pair are backed by the house band of the EP’s producer, Brad Cook). They’re also a little more interested in reinventing the songs, finding the lonely heart in the gospel-sized ambitions of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” or reinventing Kendrick Lamar and SZA’s “Luther” (unpopular opinion: one of my least favorite songs on GNX) into a pretty great back porch country song. They even manage to almost rescue Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” from its own corniness, turning it into something surprisingly affecting before that invincibly cheeseball chorus kicks in and ruins all their hard work. It’s not essential listening, but for anyone who’s a fan of either artist, it’s a fun little aside. Will I listen again?: To that U2 cover? Definitely. The rest? If I’m on a Band of Horses or Iron & Wine kick.
Dar Williams, Hummingbird Highway (Righteous Babe): Singer-songwriter? More like storyteller: for 35 years, Dar Williams has been gracing us with album after album of up-tempo folk songs that work as well as short stories or character studies as they do songs. Hummingbird Highway, her first album in four years and her first for Ani DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, offers more of what she does so well. The lyrics-forward nature of Williams’ work makes it particularly ill-suited to forming a solid opinion after just one listen since the experience of her story-songs deepens with subsequent listens, but since that’s the name of the game in this column, here are my first impressions.
I found the first two songs merely okay, not bad but nothing I hadn’t heard from Williams before. The sudden left turn into a bossa nova-meets-French pop groove for third track “Tu Sais le Printemps” pricked up my ears. It was the fifth track, a brassy country rock cover of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “I Want to See the Bright Lights,” that really won me over—the faster pace, quick-pickin’ lead guitar, and boogie piano are all excellent additions to what was originally kind of a sleepy song. I was fully in from there on out: “Sacred Mountain” rocks back and forth between sparse percussion on the verses and rollickin’ Jayhawks-style alt-country on the chorus, the jaunty “Maryland, Maryland” is state theme song-worthy, the Celtic folk lament “Put the Coins on His Eyes” is so perfect that I want to state for the record that I’d love to have this played at my funeral, and the penultimate “What Bird You See” showcases just Williams’ gently plucked acoustic guitar and beautiful, plainspoken voice. And it all ends on a note of hope with “Olive Tree,” a sweet story exemplifying the old proverb about planting trees for future generations even though you know you’ll never experience their shade.
So on first impression, Hummingbird Highway is a bit back-loaded, but that back half is damn good and I look forward to getting to know the front half better as well. Also worthy of excitement: Williams just announced tour dates for next year, including a March 11 date at City Winery St. Louis. Will I listen again?: Definitely.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Perimenopop (Decca): Sophie Ellis-Bextor had a huge comeback in 2023 when the movie Saltburn rocketed her 2001 hit “Murder on the Dancefloor” back to the top of the UK charts. That song is literally the only song I’d ever heard by Ellis-Bextor before today, but when the 46-year-old’s new album has a brilliantly self-deprecating title like Perimenopop, I’ve got to at least give it a spin, right? If “Murder on the Dancefloor” caught your ear, you’ll probably find a lot to like here as it’s filled with similarly effervescent pop that had elements of modern disco-pop (Dua Lipa, Sabrina Carpenter) but mostly gave me strong Kylie Minogue vibes. It’s all imminently danceable, though there are a couple of more ballad-y songs (“Time,” “Heart Sing”) that didn’t do a lot for me, but they’re outnumbered by legit quality dancefloor bangers. Best of the bunch on a first listen: “Relentless,” “Taste,” “Dolce Vita,” “Glamourous,” and the more wistful album closer “Don’t Know What You’ve Got ‘Til It’s Gone” which, given the theme of the column so far, I should point out is not a cover of the Cinderella power ballad (and thank god for that). Will I listen again?: The whole album? Probably not. Individual songs? Definitely.
King Princess, Girl Violence (section1): Another first-time artist for me, the third LP from Mikaela Straus finds her teaming up with Unknown Mortal Orchestra bassist Jacob Portrait and SZA producer Aire Atlantica for an album of songs that blend down-tempo hip-hop beats with atmospheric indie pop like an airier, less dark Billie Eilish. A couple of the rockier tracks (like “Cry Cry Cry”) even sound a bit like Avril Lavigne if she traded in her punk-pop mp3s for 2000s indie rock. I put this album on in the background while working and it didn’t make much of an impression on that first spin, but I threw it back on again later when I was a little less distracted and it was already starting to grow on me. Favorite songs after spin #2: “Jaime,” “RIP KP,” and “Slow Down and Shut Up.” Also of note: King Princess will be in town November 10 for a show at The Pageant. Will I listen again?: I think so…this feels like an album that needs some time to fully reveal itself. | Jason Green
