★
Cover records are, by their very nature, bizarre beasts.
When too organised or extensive, they have a habit of feeling pointless – save an oddity like Ryan Adams’ 1989 project, there’s not always much reason one would listen to a song-by-song reworking of an album over the original – but without structure, they run the risk of appearing like a lazy, disorganised cash-grab.
Gentlewoman, Ruby Man collides into the latter problem with all the grace of a drunkard stumbling into a cold brick wall. The album has no discernible through line: songs covered range from a woeful and cringeworthily overproduced take on Leonard Cohen’s ‘Suzanne’ to a downright odd attempt to bring new life to ‘Grease’, the hit from the musical of the same name.
It’s a shame, because our key players are usually so damn likeable: Flo Morrissey is a rising talent with one exceptional album to her name, while Matthew E. White impressed with 2015’s Fresh Blood. But here they sound like warbling brats unhappy to share the same space, and their vocal performances jostle ungainly up and down the scales.
It’s ugly and it’s insulting and it’s ridiculous, but more than that, it’s flat out pointless. Behold: 2017’s first real stinker is here.
Flo Morrissey & Matthew E. White’sGentlewoman, Ruby Manis available now through Liberator/Glassnote.
