reviews
Opening a can o’ worms.
Jesse Malin - On Your SleeveAlternative Press - Steven Robertshaw on 3/24/09 @ 4:16 PM - altpress.com
Cover albums are typically hit-or-miss endeavors. Stay true to the original compositions and it's rehash; stray and it's blasphemy. Thankfully, Jesse Malin's collection of influential pop-culture pillars, On Your Sleeve, lands safely in a fluff of respectful admiration. Malin's weary, nasal warbling and inner-city grit transforms a song like Bad Brains' "Leaving Babylon" into a lush, political orchestral statement rather than a minimalist reggae jam. The Hold Steady's "You Can Make Him Like You" is scaled back and renamed "You Can Make Them Like You," resulting in an everyman, Springsteenian bravado, while the Boss' own "Hungry Heart" comes dripping with a Casio-blipped sonic eeriness, rounding out a succinct, yet refreshingly sundry list of covers. For the Malin faithful, these are the seeds from which the glitter in the gutter sprung. (ONE LITTLE INDIAN) Ryan J. Prado
Official Website: http://www.onelittleindian-us.com




















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