Mayer Hawthorne - Impressions (2011)
Genres: Funk, Soul
For anyone that may not be familiar with Mayer Hawthorne, he's a musician with an array of musical skill. Widely known as a singer/songwriter, he's also a producer, arranger, audio engineer, DJ, rapper and— if that weren't enough— a multi-instrumentalist. Born and raised in Arbor, Michigan, he relocated to Los Angeles, and was later signed to Stones Throw Records. A year after being signed to one of my favorite record labels, his debut album A Strange Arrangement was released. Not only was his debut album the best album (in my strongest opinion) of 2009, but the reaction it received quickly catapulted Hawthorne into a considerable amount of success. His Doo-wop influenced style grew on countless individuals, and he's been busy impacting the music scene by releasing various projects, as well as touring the globe.
Okay, enough with his background, let's move toward his Impressions (The Covers EP) project… The EP contains six cover tracks from various artists. You can expect to hear orignal work by Mayer Hawthorne with his band The County, Chromeo, The Festivals, and Jon Brion just to name a few. The impressing part of Impressions is how each cover has a story behind it's coming-to-be. One story that stood out amongst the rest, was the story for the track "Fantasy Girl". Here's what Hawthorne had to say about the track:
"This song was written and composed by an amazing man from Pasadena named Steve Salazar. He was born with a heart condition and passed away at the young age of 27. Before he died he recorded one incredible album of demos in the mid-70s with a band called Shorty’s Portion. Peanut Butter Wolf found a copy of the album and I loved it so much that he gave it to me (thanks Wolf!). The vinyl had a handwritten note tucked in the sleeve that was addressed to anyone who could help the band with management, a record deal, radio airplay, etc. I’d estimate there were less than 300 copies pressed. That’s my Dad playing pedal steel guitar and Topher Mohr shredding the guitar solo on my version."
Impressions (The Covers EP) is yet another enjoyable release by Mayer Hawthrone. After listening to the EP in it's entirety, it was apparent that this project wasn't thrown together without any thought. Each song was wisely chosen and executed with perfection. Even the design of the album cover was taken to some degree of seriousness. The EP opens and closes just the way I like, with fun tracks. The opening track "Work To Do" is soulful and will leave you hitting high notes you never thought you could (if you're not much of a singer), and the energetic closing track "Mr Blue Sky" will place you in high spirits. The EP also balances it's high energy with slow tempo tracks. "Don't Turn the Lights On", "Fantasy Girl", and "Little Person" is the perfect combination of dark and relaxing. Impressions is an overall solid release, and it's replay value is high.
For anyone in search of free material, look no more! This EP is free of charge. I'm normally surprised by most of the free releases I come across. However, Impressions being free comes to little surprise. It's more than likely free due to Mayer not paying for the rights of each song he covered. So with that being said… I recommend this EP to everyone. The EP can be downloaded through Mediafire (click here), and additional information of the release is located on the Stones Throw website (click here). Be sure to download yourself a copy while becoming more familiar with the release. Lastly, I've included the track "Fantasy Girl" below for anyone skeptical of giving this free EP a chance. Don't worry, I won't judge you. Enjoy!
Correction: Mayer Hawthorne recently admitted to a mistake made on his part with the "Fantasy Girl" track. The track was not written by Steve Salazar, but by D. Layne. Also, the track is not titled "Fantasy Girl" but "Fantasy Child". The mistake will more than likely remain on the release, but at least it was brought to light.
Mayer Hawthorne - Fantasy Child
3 comments:
had to listen to this song twice… wasn't too sure about it at first, but it grew on me. I'm still not completely sold on hawthorne for some reason… i dunno, his voice doesn't give me chills. but i'm down to be proven wrong.
I don't think I can prove you wrong when it comes to an artist like Mayer. He's a hit or miss in my opinion. I come across people that love his work, and then I come across people that aren't really into him. Despite him being a hit or miss, he still has the ability to grow on people. I guess it all depends on the person.
Right. I think you hit the nail on the head there. With him, I find myself enjoying a few tracks more than others, but I can't seem to get into an entire project of his. I dig his experimentation and respect the love and knowledge he has of his craft, but yeah… the end product, like you said, is hit or miss for me.
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