You can't turn on a TV at the moment without hearing some female singer doing a saccharine-sweet acoustic cover of a famous pop song. There's a never ending stream of the bloody things, and we're blaming it on Taken By Trees. Given this deluge you'd be forgiven for taking one look at this EP and giving it a very wide berth, but for once you'd be missing out. Singer-songwriter AG (Adrianne Gonzalez to her Mum, well her Mum wouldn't use her surname, but you know what we mean) has recorded an entire EP of Beatles covers (the most sacrilegious of all back-catalogues to mess with) in her own style. The EP is set for release on John Lennon's birthday on October 9th and also marks 50 years since Ringo Starr joined the band to complete what would become The Fab Four. Earlier this summer we brought you the gender-bending video accompaniment to her paired-down version of 'I Wanna Be Your Man', and the rest of the EP throws up more surprising and successful renditions.
The slightly-too-sweet version of 'She Loves You' does get a little too close to becoming the soundtrack to the next O2 commercial and is a surprising inclusion given it was their biggest hit. With the sizeable recorded output of the band to pick from you'd expect a few less well known songs, which, happily, we get. The only other single AG tackles is 'From Me To You', transforming it into a wonderful 80s pop hit. That might sound like an awful move but, really, it works. 'I Saw Her Standing There' is given a tender and dreamy makeover, as if it was produced by The Postal Service. The best is saved for last with another pair from the 'Please Please Me' album. You can hear the emotion pouring out of her heart as she sings 'Misery', backed by little more than a solitary piano. It gives the heartstrings a good tug. It's her take on 'There's A Place' that's the crowning moment of 'The Beatles', once more it's flooded with passion and the piano seems to grow in force throughout the song until a simple beat and harmonies kick in and it flies just that little bit higher. It's a brave move to take on such revered songs, yet for the most part AG's more than done them justice and 'The Beatles' is an EP born out of love rather than any financial motives, so as Ringo nearly sang, don't let it pass you by.
AG's website
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Love the Beatles covers! LesT
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