MANGAN MAKES THEM HIS OWN
Singer/songwriter's Thief is a cover collection that avoids the obvious, says Stuart Derdeyn.
From having to cancel the Nice Nice Very Nice 10th anniversary tour to having to resort to regular live streams to reach fans, Dan Mangan has faced a lot of career disappointments in this pandemic year. That the singer/ songwriter has done such a great job of keeping in contact with fans with his well-received live streams is testament to his talent for finding ways to work around difficulties.
Now he can add another achievement to his career legacy, a covers album that doesn't suck. Too often, when an artist releases a collection of their favourite songs, the result is a bunch of obvious choices rendered close enough to the originals that it feels like a play for a hit out of a previous hit. Look no further than the covers of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for an example. A moratorium should be declared on any new recordings/ videos/campfire singalongs/etc. of that song for at least a decade. Mangan has wisely avoided such obvious song choices and opted for a selection that both provides insight into where his sound comes from as well as — possibly — directing some of his diehard fans in musical directions they might not yet have ventured into.
Five things to know about Thief:
1. Variety
That he can open the set with R.E.M.'S hit Losing My Religion and give the song enough of a personalized spin to make it his own is impressive. Tossing in songs by artists as diverse as Neutral Milk Hotel, fellow Vancouver indie rockers Yukon Blonde and a Bob Marley cover that is rarely performed is just cool.
2.
Love You Madly
This Cake cover is rendered as such a tender ballad that I had to go back and listen to the original just to see how much it had been altered. It's a total reworking of the California band's upbeat, funky hit and makes a pretty solid case that the song might have always been better the way Mangan performs it. The lyrics are far more romantic than I'd ever noticed.
3.
Hang With Me
If ever there was an artist who seems inseparable from big banging EDM beats and washes of synth in rising chorus, it's Robyn. But the Swedish singer has always had a great deal more lyrical depth than her hook-laden songs would suggest. Case in point, how Mangan's melancholy folk take on the tune exposes that it was never about good times and a party. It's a sad declaration of losing one's self and hoping the one you hang with will be honest enough to let you know.
4.
Ex-factor
Intoning over what sounds like a vintage Casio bass line, this Lauryn Hill cover swerves through dense layers of keyboard washes with the most minimal rhythm track and sounds as far from Hill's R&B love declaration as it could be. It's a very different take on the tune, but still seems to give the lyrics the gravitas they deserve.
5.
Chances Are
With Amy Millan's breathy, whispered backing harmonies paired with Mangan's almost distorted vocals over a demented string section, this manages to take a Bob Marley classic into completely alien territory.
ERIC H I LT O N
The Impossible Silence | Montserrat House
Genre: Lounge-tronica
Key track: Cassette d'afrique
One half of the founding duo behind the Washington, D.C., club cool crew Thievery Corporation, Eric Hilton doesn't venture very far from that group's combination of icy electronica, '60s Continental pop and dub.
The concept behind the 13-track record is that it is a model for a swinging '60s or early '70s soundtrack of the sort that record collectors scour the vaults for all over the world.