Sign up for our newsletters Subscribe
There are some well-chosen covers, including "Can't Let Go," a song written by Randy Weeks and made famous by Lucinda Williams; the Sam Cooke classic "Ain't That Good News"; and Bob Dylan's "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"—given a wonderfully lilting, swampy reading that shows how Copeland can remake all kinds of material in her own way. But four of the album's 11 songs were cowritten by Wood and Copeland's manager, John Hahn, and I'd say the singer deserves better. The pair wrote the album opener, "Lemon Pie"—which you can check out below—a boilerplate indictment of American income disparity that Copeland nonchalantly owns, while their "Somebody Else's Jesus" is a hokey rip on self-styled religious profiteers that sounds like a cross between the Rolling Stones and Three Dog Night. She sounds best on the more familiar repertoire, but not because those tunes are familiar—it's because they're much better than the middling contemporary fare that makes up the bulk of the album. I don't know who Chris Long is, but his song "Hangin' Up" proves that the singer can kill on current material if it matches her talent. Copeland performs Friday night at SPACE in Evanston.
Today's playlist:
Amina Alaoui, Arco Iris (ECM)
Daniel Rosenthal, Lines (American Melody)
Kelan Phil Cohran & Legacy, African Skies (Captcha)
Michael Nyman, Michael Nyman (MN)
Breakway, Hot Choice (Peira)
Comments