Jul 102014
 

Covers albums are commonly filled with songs that have special meaning to the band and often had an impact on the members. “Break-Up album” usually refers to a collection of songs dedicated to the end of a recent, often painful, relationship. Brooklyn band Quiet Loudly missed both of those memos. Their album is filled with songs chosen at the whim of a few fans who pledged a certain amount on the previous album’s Kickstarter, and the “Break Up” referred to is the band itself.

As their final farewell, Quiet Loudly released a complete, free-to-download album on Bandcamp of the fan’s requested songs. It’s an eclectic mix, to be sure, but the band asked to be challenged. Overall the guys put out a pretty solid mix of songs, especially considering the content and that they recorded it “live,” together in one room. There are missteps: A-Ha‘s “Take on Me” sounds like the drunken karaoke version, for instance. But plenty of high points as well: Dolly Parton‘s “Jolene” channels the incredible White Stripes’ version, and their jam-band cover of Harry Nilsson‘s “Jump Into the Fire” is bluesy and fun. To close the album the band does an eleven-minute, shoegaze-y cover of Tracy Chapman‘s emotional “Fast Car” that manages to feel messy and in total control at the same time.

At Cover Me, we love the AV Undercover series, where a band is often forced to cover a song they wouldn’t otherwise play. Many times those combinations are transcendent, but equally common are the lackluster performances. Quiet Loudly set up their own version of this scenario and put out a pretty solid outing, even as they were calling it quits. Let’s hope in the future more bands take on this challenge and that putting out a covers-break-up album becomes a thing.

Download the album for free here.

Tracklist:
1. Jump Into the Fire (Harry Nilsson cover)
2. From a Motel 6 (Yo La Tengo cover)
3. Jolene (Dolly Parton cover)
4. Vaccine (GunFight! cover)
5. Take on Me (A-Ha cover)
6. Green Mind (Dinosaur Jr. cover)
7. Waiting for October (Polaris cover)
8. Purple Rain (Prince cover)
9. Growls Garden (Clark cover)
10. Fast Car (Tracy Chapman cover)

Cover Me is now on Patreon! If you love cover songs, we hope you will consider supporting us there with a small monthly subscription. There are a bunch of exclusive perks only for patrons: playlists, newsletters, downloads, discussions, polls - hell, tell us what song you would like to hear covered and we will make it happen. Learn more at Patreon.

  One Response to “Quiet Loudly Release Covers Album, then Break Up”

Comments (1)
  1. I totally disagree about the Take On Me cover- that song has been covered a million times but no one has ever taken that approach with it. I think it’s fantastic!

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)