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Uncover Me | 
 enlarge | Artist: Jann Arden
Label: Universal Music Group
Category: Music
List Price: CDN$ 18.99
Buy New: CDN$ 9.31
You Save: CDN$ 9.68 (51%)
New (16) Used (5) from CDN$ 9.30
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 7471
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 5 x 0.5
MPN: 712347
UPC: 602517123472
EAN: 0602517123472
ASIN: B000MGUZ7K
Release Date: February 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships within 1 - 2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New and Sealed.
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| Tracks:
| • | Bring The Boys Home | | • | California Dreamin' | | • | Peace Train | | • | At Seventeen | | • | Love Is A Battlefield | | • | Son of a Preacher Man | | • | Counterfeit Heart | | • | You're So Vain | | • | Downtown | | • | Solitaire |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.ca
Perfectly titled Uncover Me is a collection of nine cover songs and one original that allows Arden to show how emotion-driven music has influenced her along the way. The disc kicks off with "Bring the Boys Home" (originally a 1971 anti-Vietnam war song) that is especially moving with its refrain, "bring 'em back alive." The '70s hit "Peace Train" by Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) also delivers another powerful message in a gentle melody. True to Arden's musical nature, there are a handful of melancholic tracks, including the aptly wistful version of Janis Ian's "At Seventeen" and a moving, traditional take on the Carpenters' "Solitaire." The disc's one original, "Counterfeit Heart" is a definite standout of the slower numbers, one that seems awash with a '40s croon and ache. That track aside, the strongest parts of the CD come in the form of the sassy female-fronted melodies that bring out the best of Arden's style. Carly Simon's "You're So Vain," Pat Benetar's "Love Is a Battlefield," and Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" each allow Arden to infuse a little extra zest and oomph in her vocals. The only downside? That in choosing the songs, Arden didn't pick a number with a little more bite to it, such as Heart's "Crazy on You" or Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation," which would have allowed her to shake off the softness, if only for a while. --Denise Sheppard
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Just Plain Bad October 10, 2007
Gerald B. Johnson (Calgary, Alberta Canada)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm sorry. I tried to like this album.. but there's nothing to like about it. Perhaps one good song on the entire album. Mediocre to dreadful remakes of good songs. Most songs are arranged almost exactly the same as the originals, sort of makes you wonder why they bothered. The point of doing covers should be to introduce a different viewpoint or style.. but what's the point of doing inferior versions of the original arrangements? Just plain dumb, just plain bad.
 Different covers album. March 20, 2007
joemacktheknife (East Hampton, NY)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Some people like to do things the easy way. Jann Arden is not one of them.
Consider her latest disc "Uncover Me".
For many artists, a covers album is a cop-out -- a set of tried-and-true tunes tossed off to plug the gap and fatten the wallet between discs.
But not Jann. And not for want of trying, either.
The Canadian singer-songwriter reportedly cut a disc of croony standards, but scrapped it as too downbeat (and coming from ballad queen Arden, that's really saying something).
Instead, she regrouped and recorded the fittingly titled "Uncover Me", a collection of '60s and '70s pop tunes that give us a revealing glimpse into her early musical loves and influences.
Listening to her glistening pop-rock versions of classics like Janis Ian's "At Seventeen", Carly Simon's "You're So Vain", The Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'" and Karen Carpenter's "Solitaire", you can picture her sitting alone in her teenage bedroom after school, strumming an acoustic guitar and singing along with her turntable.
The timeless messages of Freda Payne's "Bring the Boys Home" and Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" resonate strongly without seeming heavy-handed, while her somewhat tongue-in-cheek cover of Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Man" is just a kick.
Most of the tunes are pretty faithfully rendered, with the exception of Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield", which is recast as a shadowy ballad.
But no matter the setting, everything possesses Arden's usual undercurrent of melancholy -- even Petula Clark's sugar-spun ditty "Downtown" sounds ironic and resigned in her hands.
After all, Jann knows that forgetting all your troubles and cares is easier said than done.
Lovely, sensitive, beautiful!
 Give this one a miss March 2, 2007
PATRICK HERTEL
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
What macaroni and cheese is to fine dining the nine covers that Arden perpetrates (I use the tern advisedly) here are to the original versions. She whines her way monotonously through some great songs like Carly Simon's "Your So Vain" and Pat Benatar's "Love Is A Battlefield" and turns them into pap.
Even Cat Stevens' "Peace Train" (or "Peace Tuhrain" as she pronounces it) gets the treatment.
If you like Cheese Whiz Lite over real cheese, maybe this is for you. I could also recommend Mantovani or James Last. OR you could download the originals (at [...] cents each?) and make a really great CD at almost half the price.
Better than I expected... February 23, 2007
Tommy Hildebrand (Big Spring, Texas United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I was another fann that wasn't initially crazy about a cover album, since Jann's original stuff is so outstanding. Then I heard "Bring The Boys Home" on her website and that changed my mind. I looked forward to it from that point on. I got the disc in the mail soon after release and I have to say it's really good. For the most part Jann has quite a unique interpretation of these songs, and her voice is as captivating and heartfelt as ever. She really nails "At Seventeen" and "Solitaire" and the one original tune "Counterfeit Heart" is pure Jann. I recommend the disc. It's a fun and interesting diversion for those of us eagerly waiting the next album full of original material.
Arden's "Uncovers" Stylishly February 15, 2007
T. Yap (Sydney, NSW, Australia)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Prime Cuts: Solitaire, Downtown, Youre So Vain
To designate Arden as a one-hit wonder with her emotionally ravaging top 20 smash Insensitive is a caricature. Across the border on the 49th parallel, this chanteuse has been amassed with 8 Juno Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) and she was also the receipt of the esteemed 2000 Prairie Awards Songwriter of the Year. However, for Uncover Me, her ninth studio album, Arden has decided to give her writing kilt a rest. Save for one newly penned tune, this album finds Arden covering a wide array of music from Cat Stevens to the Carpenters to Pat Benator to Carly Simon to Pertula Clark to Dusty Springfield. Naturally such an adventurous excursion lend itself to being one of the most vocally challenging endeavors Arden has had ever committed on record. Unable to divorce herself totally from the originals, she does vocally import Karen Carpenters vulnerability, Carly Simons spitefulness, and her own skeptical bite, making Arden a much richer composite vocalist.
If a song could cut the heart like a stiletto it has to be the Carpenters Solitaire. A probable biography of Karen Carpenters vacuous quest for true love, this piano-based ballad finds Arden cribbing Carpenters forlorn and despairing purrs with great effect. Pertula Clarks Downtown, though traffics with a carefree disposition, guises an ache of loneliness where the songs protagonist tries to forget her pain vis-a-vis window shopping. Ardens new composition Counterfeit Heart, though not as melodramatic as the aforementioned tracks, is still a heart wrenching ballad of misplaced trust and broken promises to which Arden conveys with mastery. Also, emotionally lacerating is Janis Ians At Seventeen, a song of struggling identity that still speaks today as it did over thirty years ago.
Not one to be victimized by lifes circumstances, Youre So Vain is the perfect get even type of a song that Arden performs with sass and attitude. While she sticks too close to Pat Benators Love is a Battlefield that Arden veers dangerously close to being enmeshed into a Benator soundalike. Similarly, a couple of misfires comes in the form of songs that are more inspirational in nature. Cat Stevens Peace Train, despite being a well crafted song about world peace with those intricate spiritual/Biblical overtones, has been done to death. And sadly Arden adds nothing new to it. Likewise, Bring Home the Boys, with its over-produced backing, somehow gags Ardens performance.
Nevertheless, as far as cover albums go, Uncover Me, albeit some too obvious choices, is a well selected opus. Further, the highlight is Ardens interpretative skill: soaking up the best emotional nuances of the originals and adding her own razor-sharp affections, these paeans beget an unflinching realism that is hard to resist. After all these years of experience, Arden has triumphantly channeled her best into the articulation of these songs.
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