Last Wednesday, Chicago-based Overcoat Records released "The Brave and the Bold," a cover album jointly fronted by freeform jazz and math-rock outfit Tortoise and slowcore king Will Oldham under his Bonnie "Prince" Billy moniker. This unlikely duo recorded an album of ten covers originally by such pop music virtuosos as Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Lungfish, Devo and Melanie Safka.
Despite the individual excellence of the two artists, the duo is, unsurprisingly, too fundamentally different in style. At times the songs on this album clash accordingly; the musical proclivities and styling of Tortoise are sometimes at odds with Oldham's vocals, leading to occasional dissonant and messy songs.
The album begins with Brazilian pop icon Milton Nascimento's samba "Cravo ?© Canela" complete with the original rhythm (appropriately distorted of course) and Oldham's surprisingly convincing Portuguese.
The next selection is the Springsteen single "Thunder Road." Whereas on "Cravo ?© Canela" Tortoise and Oldham maintain the original nuances of the song, they completely revamp this one. By adding a synthesizer intro and outro, using a calculated and funky drumbeat, and employing impressive guitar wails behind Oldham's feeling vocal interpretation, they give Bruce a run for his money with their version of his song.
"The Brave and the Bold" hits a pitfall midway through the album with a cover of Elton John's "Daniel" followed by their rendition of Lungfish's "Love is Love." Oldham and Tortoise conflict on both of these tracks; while Oldham bleats away on vocals, Tortoise blare their instruments in the background.
The same thing happens in the cover of Devo's "That's Pep," where Oldham must strain to be heard over Tortoise's synthesizer and guitar swells. So too must the listener strain to understand him.
In Tortoise and Oldham's defense, the only way in which an artist can imprint their individuality onto a cover album is through tampering with musical qualities. It shows some disregard on the part of the artists, though, to have put their music-making abilities above the lyrics of the songs they chose to cover.
The album redeems itself in its final throes. The clincher, "On My Own," offers some of the most spectacular vocals that Oldham has ever done as he boasts the full breadth of his voice. Probably most exemplary of his versatility is his rendition of Safka's "(Some Say) I Got Devil" which he performs faithfully enough to maintain the femininity of the original song.
On these tracks Tortoise play it safe, using no more than guitar, drums, and piano (the same instruments that Oldham is accustomed to singing against). The songs that stand out tend to be the ones where Tortoise stand down to Oldham's style - the former passively droning on their instruments behind the latter's crooning. It says something that the most accessible tracks on the album are ones that sound to be straight off a Bonnie "Prince" Billy album.
It is a shame that the two artists must compete at times, and that each song inherently favors either Tortoise's intense instrumentation or Oldham's powerful and moving voice. The only detraction from this album would be that each of the two artists has too distinct a style, and, while separately brilliant, they do not mesh together well.
For wholly instrumental Tortoise to be teamed up with Oldham's sparse instrumentation and emphasized vocals seems, in the end, to be a lack of foresight. And altough it would be very peculiar to see another venture by these two artists, at the same time "The Brave and The Bold" is proof of both artists' musical adeptness. One can look forward to upcoming and rewarding LPs from both... separately.
