Call Upon The Author

Thomas White decided, while touring for his current album, The Maximalist, to do his own take of songs, that were already created. This is pretty brave, as it could either horribly wrong, or amazingly right.
Fortunately, Thomas picked the right songs to cover.
The 5 track EP, starts off with a cover of Warren Zevon’s Accidentally Like A Martyr. Whilst the original is mainly piano based, and more faster than White’s version, White still has the essence of Zevon, in his own way. The guitar is more noticeable over the piano, but there are times where the piano does take over. White has captured the emotion of the song, but somehow has made it his own.
That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate was originally sung by Mission of Burma, in 1982. Whilst the original definitely sounds more like a punk song, kind of like Sex Pistols, White’s version does keep that punk ‘feel’ to it, but modernises it. The vocals is the right match for White in this song, as it gives the song a more rock feel to it, with his rough voice. Again, White’s version is slightly slower, but he’s amped it up more, creating a more edgier feel to it.
We Have All The Time In The World is a beautiful song, originally sung by jazz singer Louis Armstrong. Thomas has changed the trumpets, and violins to electric guitars and keyboards. And even though the vocals are significantly different, Thomas does his best to try and do it justice. The song, in my opinion, is much sweeter when Thomas sings it, however, even though he did a good cover, I think that Louis’ version was better.
Little Fat Baby is a track off of Sparklehorse’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Lie’. The cover version, is…pretty much the same. The only difference, is that you can understand Mark Linkous, just a little bit more than White, because White’s version sounds almost, a little, static.
I’ll See You In My Dreams is the last song on the EP. Although the song was written in 1925, one of the most versions is by Joe Brown, who (along with his ukulele), created a bouncy tune, despite the lyrics, while White has slowed it down, giving it a little bit more emotion. It makes people sway, and think about things in the past, almost making this song a little nostalgic.
All in all, it’s a good EP. It shows that White can not only create his own music, but cover other people’s and not make a mess of it, which most artists can’t do. He made most songs his own, (aside from Little Fat Baby), and still maintained to keep each original artist’s standard of the song. And that, I think, deserves a pat on the back.