The thing that makes Mandy Moore’s “Coverage” work is that she puts her own spin on songs which for the most part were mildly successful hits. When an artist tackles covering old tunes, it often sounds like a collective of karaoke songs. Moore gets in the mindset of the writer of each song, rather than trying to imitate or duplicate the singer.

There is no “70s feel” to the 70s hits or “80s feel” to the 80s hits. It’s more of a “Mandy feel” through the entire album, starting from her bouncy rendition of XTC’s “Senses Working Overtime” right through to folky “Can We Still Be Friends.”

Arguably the most successful song on the album is Cat Steven’s “Moon Shadow.” To her credit, Moore does not mess with the formula Stevens used to make the song a hit, and this is the closest thing to a karaoke version of a song on this album, but it works that way.

John Fields uses the same keyboard-emphasis that he did on Andrew WK’s album on this album. His touches are especially felt on “Drop the Pilot.”

4*
Epic/Sony






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