I won't say I've been waiting for this my entire life, but I have been waiting for months for Shelby Lynne's cover album of Dusty Springfield songs to be released. I've been enamored with Dusty for years, and I think Lynne has one of the best voices out there today. So why don't I love it?
In Just A Little Lovin, Lynne pares down the originals to their bare essentials, leaving us with beautiful songs rendered by a beautiful voice, with minimal accompaniment. Springfield's versions, on the other hand, contrast bouncy, bright arrangements with her vocal desperation. I can't listen to "Am I the Same Girl," for example, without thinking of a Gary Winogrand image: the painful brightness of an LA afternoon, the aspirations of the shopgirls out for lunch coexisting with the realized dreams of the stars immortalized on Hollywood Boulevard as well as with the realities of the broken men who line the street. Lynne doesn't give us this combination of optimism and despair that I find central to my love of Dusty Springfield.
But, it's a beautiful piece of work, and maybe soon I'll be able to stop hearing the originals in the covers and appreciate it for what it is. You should buy it; Shelby Lynne is a great singer. Meantime, though, I've spent two weeks listening to this.
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3 comments:
links and photos... very fancy! can i burn this stuff?
Are you asking me, for all to see, if you can pirate my music? For shame!
Leave it to you to expand my horizons by looking backward and forward simultaneously. You have very eclectic tastes. Where do you get this stuff?
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