Amanda Palmer has had something of a busy year, whether it be extricating herself from a recording contract with Roadrunner Records or an extensive touring schedule in her own right or as part of the touring vaudeville style curiosity that is Evelyn Evelyn it would seem she has barely had time to draw breath as she made her way relentlessly back and forth across the globe with her musical endeavors.
She has however managed found the time to put together her first EP as a free woman, an unsigned artist. This is something for the fans and the curious alike, something to tide them over until the next big release which one can only presume will be sometime after her theatrical run in Cabaret at A.R.T in Boston (I told you she was busy).
Palmer’s live shows are no strangers to cover versions so this release ‘Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead On Her Magical Ukulele’ does pretty much what it says on the tin.
You’ve got all the early greats from Yorke and Co’s back catalogue here, think ‘Creep’, ‘High And Dry’, ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ as well as ‘Exit Music (For A Film) ‘Idioteque’ and ‘No Surprises’ and a bonus ‘hungover’ version of ‘Creep’ for the digital purchasers.
The odd thing about these tracks is how Palmer seems to have made them her own, you only have to look on YouTube and her fanbase have ensured that there are multitudes of live renditions of ‘Creep’ and watching her perform ukelele versions on occasions takes a little of the edge off a classic and makes the song, well…would endearing be the right word? I always felt a sense that she was winning the audience over with her renditions.
That’s the case with this EP. She makes the songs her own and manages to maintain the fragility of the material without being slavish to the originals, these aren’t recordings that have been spent God knows how long in the studio being slavishly prepared, these are snatched moments on the road and in honesty the rawness does the songs good and doesn’t harm Palmer any at all. Good reinterpretations will always win me over, that’s definitely the case here.
Amanda’s EP is available from bandcamp, sadly it appears all the limited edition packages she put together have sold out but the all important music is still available at the links below…
