Jann Arden - Uncover Me
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CD Details
Artist: Jann ArdenEdition: Music CD
Format: Import
CD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Music Label: Fontana Universal
Soundtracks:
- Bring The Boys Home
- California DreaminĀ?
- Peace Train
- At Seventeen
- Love Is A Battlefield
- Son Of A Preacher Man
- Counterfeit Heart
- You're So Vain
- Downtown
- Solitaire
Music reviews of Uncover Me
Music Review: Arden "Uncovers" Gems
Rating: 4 Stars
Prime Cuts: Solitaire, Downtown, You're So Vain
To designate Arden as a one-hit wonder with her emotionally ravaging top 20 smash "Insensitive" is a caricature. Across the border on the 49th parallel, this chanteuse has been amassed with 8 Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) and she was also the receipt of the esteemed 2000 Prairie Awards Songwriter of the Year. However, for "Uncover Me," her ninth studio album, Arden has decided to give her writing kilt a rest. Save for one newly penned tune, this album finds Arden covering a wide array of music from Cat Stevens to the Carpenters to Pat Benator to Carly Simon to Pertula Clark to Dusty Springfield. Naturally such an adventurous excursion lend itself to being one of the most vocally challenging endeavors Arden has had ever committed on record. Unable to divorce herself totally from the originals, she does vocally import Karen Carpenter's vulnerability, Carly Simon's spitefulness, and her own skeptical bite, making Arden a much richer composite vocalist.
If a song could cut the heart like a stiletto it has to be the Carpenters' "Solitaire." A probable biography of Karen Carpenter's vacuous quest for true love, this piano-based ballad finds Arden cribbing Carpenter's forlorn and despairing purrs with great effect. Pertula Clark's "Downtown," though traffics with a carefree disposition, guises an ache of loneliness where the song's protagonist tries to forget her pain vis-à-vis window shopping. Arden's new composition "Counterfeit Heart," though not as melodramatic as the aforementioned tracks, is still a heart wrenching ballad of misplaced trust and broken promises to which Arden conveys with mastery. Also, emotionally lacerating is Janis Ian's "At Seventeen," a song of struggling identity that still speaks today as it did over thirty years ago.
Not one to be victimized by life's circumstances, "You're So Vain" is the perfect "get even" type of a song that Arden performs with sass and attitude. While she sticks too close to Pat Benator's "Love is a Battlefield" that Arden veers dangerously close to being enmeshed into a Benator soundalike. Similarly, a couple of misfires comes in the form of songs that are more "inspirational" in nature. Cat Stevens' "Peace Train," despite being a well crafted song about world peace with those intricate spiritual/Biblical overtones, has been done to death. And sadly Arden adds nothing new to it. Likewise, "Bring Home the Boys," with its over-produced backing, somehow gags Arden's performance.
Nevertheless, as far as cover albums go, "Uncover Me," albeit some too obvious choices, is a well selected opus. Further, the highlight is Arden's interpretative skill: soaking up the best emotional nuances of the originals and adding her own razor-sharp affections, these paeans beget an unflinching realism that is hard to resist. After all these years of experience, Arden has triumphantly channeled her best into the articulation of these songs.
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Description of Uncover Me
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Perfectly titled Uncover Me is a collection of nine cover songs and one original that allows Arden to show how emotion-driven music has influenced her along the way. The disc kicks off with "Bring the Boys Home" (originally a 1971 anti-Vietnam war song) that is especially moving with its refrain, "bring 'em back alive." The '70s hit "Peace Train" by Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) also delivers another powerful message in a gentle melody. True to Arden's musical nature, there are a handful of melancholic tracks, including the aptly wistful version of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" and a moving, traditional take on the Carpenters' "Solitaire." The disc's one original, "Counterfeit Heart" is a definite standout of the slower numbers, one that seems awash with a '40s croon and ache. That track aside, the strongest parts of the CD come in the form of the sassy female-fronted melodies that bring out the best of Arden's style. Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," Pat Benetar's "Love Is a Battlefield," and Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" each allow Arden to infuse a little extra zest and oomph in her vocals. The only downside? That in choosing the songs, Arden didn't pick a number with a little more bite to it, such as Heart's "Crazy on You" or Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation," which would have allowed her to shake off the softness, if only for a while. --Denise Sheppard
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