The music of Sweden’s Timo Räisänen is peculiar stuff. Even in his homeland, where peculiar songwriters seem to grow on trees, Räisänen stands out as a bit of an anomaly. His often dense, riff-tastic solo work is all but defined by his novel singing style, with an impressive vocal range that is regularly pushed to its limits, if not allowed to crack and pop like Peter Brady knee-deep in puberty. With his fourth album, …And Then There Was Timo, he uses this distinctly affected brand of pop-rock to explore the art of the cover song, and his song choices, not to mention the final results, wind up even more interesting than I could have ever guessed… nay, dreamt!
Cover albums can be a tricky thing, but Räisänen capably manages to keep things interesting by selecting what could only be considered to be a substantial variety of artists to rework. Throughout the generous helping of sixteen tracks, he takes on everything from Depeche Mode, to REO Speedwagon, to Sonny & Cher (with plenty in between), and pulls it off without a hint of predictable hipster irony. I can’t even imagine many of his peers throwing any energy at recording Air Supply’s Without You, much less doing so without their tongue planted firmly in their cheek. And even more impressive than the unflagging sincerity is the inventiveness he brings to most of the tracks, thoroughly re-imagining the majority of them in a way that gives merit to their reiteration. With the Sugarbabe’s About You Now, he makes the previously unlistenable anything but, and with AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long, he pulls off the risky feat of turning a bar-rock legend into a mellow, heartfelt ballad. All in all, …And Then There Was Timo serves as a strong testament to both Räisänen’s unique talent, as well as the surprising pleasure of a cover album actually done right.
I’ve never heard an artist cover a song and completely change the meaning of it like Timo did with You Shook Me All Night Long. He’s brilliant.
Damn skippy! And this album is one where my favorite song on it changes almost daily, which says a lot about the overall quality. There were too many good songs to even mention them all, with some of the best, like the Sahara Hotnights and Josh Groban covers, not even working their way into the review. I actually think the Groban one is my current favorite, but I’d probably have a different answer tomorrow.
I really need to find out more about this Josh Groban fellow haha. I think I’m the only one on earth who can’t name one of his songs. It’s probably a good thing, but I feel left out.
I picked this up on your review and I must say I’m loving it. How any one can transform pop crap like “About you now” into something not only listenable, but damn enjoyable, I’ll never know. On a sadder note, I thought his voice sounded similar to Thomas Hansen of Saint Thomas. So out of curiosity I checked to see what he was up to these days only to find out he died in 2007. So way to ruin my day Alan!
P.S. More music reviews please.