Although jazz-pop singer
Erin Bode most often gets compared to
Norah Jones, a closer point of comparison is the British indie duo
Everything But the Girl. Although he doesn't get front-cover credit,
Over and Over is effectively a duet album between
Bode's warmly appealing, low-key vocals and her primary collaborator,
Adam Maness, whose piano and acoustic guitar are at the heart of the arrangements and who co-wrote nearly all the songs.
Maness is
Ben Watt to
Bode's
Tracey Thorn, an empathetic collaborator rooted both in cool jazz and acoustic folk, and the pair create a hybrid of the two styles matched to a fondness for the reflective side of singer/songwriter pop that's best revealed on the album's two pop covers.
Paul Simon's "Graceland" is transformed from the South African country ramble into something closer to
Joni Mitchell's late-'70s fusion period, and
Simply Red's near-forgotten ballad "Holding Back the Years" is overhauled from the unashamedly slick chart pop of the original into a stark duet performance of
Maness' close-miked, echoing acoustic guitar and
Bode's haunted, mournful vocals that changes the entire feel of the tune. Those tracks aside, however, it's the
Bode/
Maness originals that are the most intriguing part of this quiet but engrossing album, particularly "Send Me Up a Sign" (the most overtly
Everything But the Girl-like song on the album) and the utterly charming, winsome lost-love tune "With the Radio On," which wouldn't sound out of place on a mid-'90s twee pop single by the likes of Softies or
Lois until
Seamus Blake's playful sax solo shows up. That cross-genre appeal is what makes
Over and Over such a good record:
Erin Bode isn't interested in staying in one particular stylistic box. ~ Stewart Mason