Play 90 second soundbite of 'Day Is Done' @ 'CD quality'
Not just anyone could re-model a Nick Drake song and certainly anything by Nico could prove to be almost impossible. But, Alison O'Donnell's managed to do justice to both Nick Drake's 'Day Is Done' and Nico's 'Frozen Warnings'; a massive feat methinks. O'Donnell's naturally otherworldly delivery allows her to pick up Drakes haunting and sentimental 'Day Is Done' and make it her own; subtle guitar picking and sparsely punctuative bass and drums add a certain Drake-esque tension to the beautiful song as O'Donnell puts her soul deliciously on the line with a fantastic vocal rendering. If Drakes song wasn't haunting enough, the almost inimitable Nico's 'Frozen Warning' is positively dripping with icy darkness as O'Donnell fills the grim but somehow mellow depths of the piece with more superb vocalisation set against the drone of Cale-esque tones and timings.
Amazingly, O'Donnell's re-visited creations become personal and heart-felt, her delivery precise yet empathetically steely and cold to drag every last crumb of remorse and grief from deep inside as she becomes at one with the songs. The girl chose well; two classic downbeat songs, neither easy to cover, both concealing possible numerous pitfalls for any would-be plagiarist but both beautifully handled here by Alison O'Donnell with her insightful and compelling look into the murky depths of both Drake's and Nico's chemically adjusted minds.
To choose two such difficult songs was perhaps a gamble by Alison O'Donnell - well, the gamble paid off and O'Donnell can hold her head high in the knowledge that she did herself and Drake and Nico proud with her scintillating versions of their songs.
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