{"id":564,"date":"2011-07-25T05:18:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-25T10:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=564"},"modified":"2011-07-25T05:18:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T10:18:00","slug":"ep-review-mayer-hawthorne-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/25\/ep-review-mayer-hawthorne-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"EP Review: Mayer Hawthorne – Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"What can I say? I\u2019m old-school. It\u2019s only an album if you can hear it and <\/em>hold it in your hand. But modern technology being what it is, and the economics of the music industry being what they are, I do understand that there are times when a digital-only release makes economic sense for an artist. And when it\u2019s as good as Impressions<\/em>, the new EP from Mayer Hawthorne<\/strong><\/a>, it beats the hell out of nothing-at-all. (Hawthorne\u2019s pretty damn old-school too, so there.)<\/p>\n

This one\u2019s a special treat, because it\u2019s free. You can get it here<\/a>, but if you\u2019ll indulge me for a moment, I\u2019ll tell you why it\u2019s worthwhile. Then you can go get it. It will still be there; trust me.<\/p>\n

The title of this six-song EP has nothing to do with Curtis Mayfield<\/strong>\u2019s old group, though if it did, that would be pretty cool, too: Hawthorne could pull off a set of Mayfield covers just fine. But what we have instead are an eclectic clutch of covers. In the hands of Hawthorne and his band, The Isley Brothers<\/strong>\u2019 \u201cWork to Do\u201d has Philly soul hints of Hall & Oates<\/strong> and the funkier end of (shudder!) The Doobie Brothers<\/strong>. (In concert, Hawthorne and The County<\/strong> actually cover \u201cWhat a Fool Believes,\u201d so the comparison is not an unfair one.)<\/p>\n

Electronic duo Chromeo<\/strong> might not seem an act to turn to for a project of this sort, but Hawthorne makes \u201cDon\u2019t Turn the Lights On\u201d into a slow jam: imagine Isaac Hayes\u2019<\/strong> slo-mo, extended arrangements married to a Curtis Mayfield-styled vocal, and the result is this track. It sounds a bit like early-mid 70s AM radio pop as well.<\/p>\n

A fetching trumpet solo kicks off \u201cYou\u2019ve got the Makings of a Lover\u201d in style. This song sounds like a cover of one of those impossibly rare Northern Soul sides that somebody like Keb Darge<\/strong><\/a> might dig up. And as Hawthorne explains, it is, kind of. The Festivals<\/strong> were from Dallas, TX.<\/p>\n

Another obscurity, \u201cFantasy Girl\u201d finds Hawthorne employing his strong falsetto voice. The 1970s original was a demo, never properly released. Hawthorne\u2019s arrangement owes a bit to \u2013 of all things \u2013 Steely Dan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

John Brion<\/strong> (the Grays<\/strong><\/a>) wrote \u201cLittle Person\u201d for the film Synecdoche , NY<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/span>(Yeah, me neither.) It\u2019s a precious tune, and Hawthorne renders it with the right amount of subtlety. Some nice vibe work adds interest.<\/p>\n

A one-take live-in-the-studio version of Electric Light Orchestra<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cMr. Blue Sky\u201d makes the point \u2013 if you hadn\u2019t already sorted it out — that Hawthorne digs the 70s. A near note-for-note recreation of the original\u2019s vocal part, the song features more straightforward instrumentation than the ELO original, but then you probably could have guessed that. Yes, there is some tasty Vocoder on Hawthorne\u2019s version, and no, the original\u2019s choir ending isn\u2019t here.<\/p>\n

OK, go get it<\/a>. Impressions<\/em> is free, and the download (along with a copy of A Strange Arrangement<\/em>) should hold you over nicely until Hawthorne\u2019s next full-length drops. Me, I\u2019ll be seeing him at Moogfest in October.<\/p>\n

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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can I say? I\u2019m old-school. It\u2019s only an album if you can hear it and hold it in your hand. But modern technology being what it is, and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[1440],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-mayer-hawthorne","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}