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 Caught in the Carousel - "There will be music despite everything"
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Kathryn Williams
Relations
One Little Indian
It can’t be easy to do a cover of another artist’s song. You have to try to find that right balance between respecting the original and adding your own unique take. It would be boring to just copy it exactly, but straying too far away from the original can be dangerous. Kathryn Williams for the most part finds that balance on her album Relations, on which she puts her own acoustic spin on songs by a diverse range of artists, ranging from the Bee Gees to Nirvana. Her folky renditions are the perfect background to a lazy Sunday morning. Songs such as Tim Hardin’s “How Can We Hang On To A Dream” and The Byrds’ “Ballad of Easy Rider” benefit from her luscious arrangements and vocals. Her delicate cover of Neil Young’s “Birds” is particularly beautiful. The gorgeous, orchestral pop of Python Lee Jackson’s “In a Broken Dream” and the stripped down version of the Bee Gee’s “I Started a Joke” are complete transformations from the originals. Similarly, there is an added sweetness to her take on Pavement’s “Spit On A Stranger” and Lou Reed’s “Candy Says.” At times her styling falls flat, particularly on her cover of Nirvana’s “All Apologies,” which doesn’t work with her soft, pleasant vocals and string arrangement. There are so many covers of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” that it’s hard for her to stand out, particularly in comparison to Jeff Buckley’s heartbreaking version. Despite a few misses, this collection of covers is worth a listen and makes you want to hear Williams’s own body of work.
—Jessica Simons
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