Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Album Review: Jesse Malin



Jesse Malin -'On Your Sleeve.' (One Little Indian)

Oh dear God. Listening to this album from start to finish has seemed like a waste of an evening.

I should be honest: I don't have a problem with covers albums per se, and as someone who posts a fair amount of covers nor should I. Hell, I even like Siouxsie and the Banshees' Through The Looking Glass album.

There isn't anything wrong with Malin's voice which is pleasant enough, aiming as it does for Ryan Adams but sounding like the poor man's David Gray. The songs he has selected here include utter classics that I enjoy in their original form, though if you are going to cover the likes of Lou Reed's 'Walk On the Wildside', The Clash's 'Gates Of the West,' and Paul Simon's 'Me and Julio Down By the School Yard' you need to do them justice, and you need to rework them. Instead, the end result feels bland and unexciting.

This album would be fine if he were playing live in a bar performing covers, where you'd probably sing along and think how great he was. But as an artist who's already released several albums, this feels like an utter waste of time.

**

Jesse Malin's website

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not found of Jesse Malin without really knowing why... I don't think he is a great song writter. Since you wrote about Setreophonics, I can't stop listening to them (and the 3rd reccord "not enough education...", a song like "have a nice day", you know "tam da dam, dam dam da da da damm..." sounds quite good to me).
I really like this reccord from Siouxsie with "you're lost little girl". I find it close to some cover from Echo & The Bunnymen like "paint it black" or "people are strange".


We do a cover of "walk on the wild side" with my band...the stroke have very nicely covered with song.

Anonymous said...

'Through The Looking Glass' was a corker, if you ask me.

If it's covers you want, look no furtehr than our latest show: Drunk Covers VI, a 3hr special with a 40min segemnt from Mr. & Mrs Toad

:o)

Ed said...

Jalal and DC -glad you like through the looking glass.

Jalal -I didn't like this song, it did not have the spirit of the first album.

DC -ok I'll check it out!

Ed