Covers

Greg Laswell’s *Covers* EP finds the San Diego bard reinventing these influential canticles with beautifully somber hues played at the slow burning pace of a cigarette. His opening cover of Echo & The Bunnymen’s “The Killing Moon” is so spot-on that it sounds like an alternate version of the original. And though Morphine’s “In Spite of Me” and Mazzy Star’s “Take Everything” were initially recorded at mellow tempos, Laswell’s slower versions give the former more melody and presence, while kissing new life into the latter with his warm and textured voice crooning romantically over a delicately strummed acoustic guitar, light touches on a grand piano and a distant tambourine keeping time. His heavy-lidded take on Kristin Hersh’s “Your Ghost” boasts amazing self-harmonies with one voice planted in his haunting baritone and the other coasting on his tenor. Saving the best for last, Laswell’s dynamic vocal range steps up to a higher plane on a stunning rendition of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” Just the fact that a man is singing these lyrics dramatically shifts the narrative’s perspective.