For a singer/songwriter who specializes in blues-based romping, an album of classic American and British pop covers might seem a bit strange. Indeed, the result of
Masayoshi Yamazaki's romp through the music of the '60s, '70s, and '80s is rather strange. The pairing of a Japanese acoustic performer with American, electrically enhanced pop pieces leads to both high points and low points, often within the same song.
Yamazaki places the focus on his admirable vocals, singing clearly and emotionally throughout. At the same time, his facility with English leads to some odd phrasings, with syllables seemingly misplaced from time to time. The use of an acoustic guitar, nearly solo, leads to entirely new visions of the songs --
Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" becomes an odd, jangly, and not always on course acoustic funk...but it works. When he adds in more instrumentation however, the song tends to become more pedestrian, never reaching any new heights, "Daydream Believer" and
Otis Redding's "Respect" becoming prime examples of the problem. With vocals, the scene is similar -- "Englishman in New York" becomes a bit of an interesting bossa, though the vocals fall apart midway through the song as
Yamazaki tries to emulate
Sting's delivery. At the same time,
Elton John's "Your Song" works surprisingly well, with
Yamazaki's vocal technique coming convincingly close to the drama of Sir
Elton's delivery. Samba-fying
Grover Washington's "Just the Two of Us" hits neither instrumentally nor vocally.
Cover All Yo! is a hit-and-miss affair throughout, with the misses nearly invalidating the value of the hits. ~ Adam Greenberg