In these days of Lockdown, all artists are coming up with new ideas and Lucy Blu is no exception. The Queen of snazzy well produced singles has hit upon the idea of putting out EP's covering music of different genres or themes - her first effort is covering the area of rock, so if you've ever pondered if Muse have a country bone in their bodies, or whether Dave Grohl secretly puts on a Dolly Parton CD after a Foo Fighters gig this could well be the EP for you!!
Rock is the obvious choice for an opening salvo, the lyrics often buried beneath swathes of guitar and drums, more likely to be aggressively shouted than tenderly crooned, quite often skipped over in terms of close scrutiny, under those macho facades are there perhaps softer sides waiting to come out?
This being Lockdown, Lucy has gone with just two instruments an acoustic guitar and her voice - what else does she need and while the results are somewhat DIY they are nonetheless splendid. It should also be stated this is no karaoke run through of her favourite rock tunes Lucy has selected well and it is surprising just how much difference a change in voice from male to female can make, or how the words when they are clearly audible take on new meanings obscured in the originals.
We are introduced gently with a cover of Daniel Merriweather's "Red" not the most rawkus of tracks. and Lucy has successfully extracted a sultry soulful vibe without having to resort to X Factor style over emoting and it works really well.
All American Rejects "Dirty Little Secret" provides the next food for thought, the bombastic intro of the original replaced with a lovely acoustic one instead. It's an interesting choice as listening to the different versions conjures up completely different images, All American Rejects sounds decidedly seedy whereas Lucy's version seems to be a distinctly different little secret, still illicit undoubtedly, just with a little more class and feeling! . Lucy provides her own backing vocals at times to great effect on a highly successful reinterpretation.
Muse are a band whose popularity frankly leaves this reviewer completely baffled but there is no denying that "Starlight" was one of those songs whose pounding piano riff at least, you could not escape and here it is recreated on a trusty acoustic guitar. Lucy has thankfully eschewed the option to take the vocals to closely to the extremes of the original giving a rather splendid performance including some strident guitar playing at times -
The best of the bunch is saved for last, with a cover of Foo Fighters "Best Of You", this could easily be slipped into her live set unannounced and people would be coming up at the end of the show to congratulate her on her new song. The volume of the vocals increases as the song develops into the most complete performance of the EP choc full of emotion.
As reimaginings go this has been a total success,even though produced in Lockdown there is clearly a degree of thought and consideration that has gone into this to make it this good. Not sure how regularly Lucy is planning on turning these out, hopefully it will be soon. This on has been hugely enjoyable, can't wait to see which genre she fancies tackling next.