I celebrated my second 21st birthday a week or so ago. One of my gifts was the newly-released CD: She will have her way: the songs of Tim and Neil Finn.

This is a terrific CD. It’s made up entirely of cover versions of songs written by the Tim and/or Neil Finn down the years, all performed by women from Australia and New Zealand. Most of the performances are delightfully unplugged. Many are innovative—not just slavishly following the original versions of the songs. I’ve just listened to it start-to-finish while on a nice long walk, and I was entranced. Some highlights (in my opinion):

• Missy Higgins: Stuff and nonsense
• Lisa Miller: I hope I never (very cool)
• Sarah Blasko: Don’t dream it’s over (normally one of my least favourite Finn songs)
• Sophie Koh: Charlie (a very different interpretation compared to the haunting old version).

Samples are available here (HMV’s site). Have a listen.

I noticed that there is a 2-CD special edition available that includes all the original versions on the second disc.

I have two other CDs of a similar nature (other performers covering an artist’s work), and recommend them both as well:

Bespoke Songs, Lost Dogs, Detours & Rendezvous—Songs of Elvis Costello

The Women at the Well—The Songs of Paul Kelly

This entry was posted on 6 Nov 2005 at 11:16 (Sydney) and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.