Camille begins with a cover of Tom Waits’ “Take It With Me”. Despite the somber tone of the tune, it reveals a softer facet of Camille’s voice than we’ve heard before that recalls Holly Cole’s version of “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” on Temptation. But no worries, O’Sullivan soon reminds of us of the demented circus from which she emerged by unleashing her throaty wail on a big brassy rendering of Jacques Brel’s “The Bulls”, delivering a swaggering cabaret version of Waits’ “Misery Is The River”, and conjuring up the frenetic energy of a psychotic carnival on “Moritat Vom Mackie Messer” (Weil/Brecht’s Threepenny Opera origin of “Mack The Knife”).
A wistful take of Radiohead’s “No Surprises” is followed by a sultry croon of Nina Simone’s “Sugar In My Bowl”. The latter initially seems far too restrained, but gets an awesome Diamanda Galas treatment toward the end. Camille then tackles a pair of David Bowie songs: “Suffragette City” and “Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide”. These relatively tame covers are nice, but O’Sullivan’s strength lies in the brilliantly bizarre tracks mentioned above as well as whiskey-soaked ballads like Nick Cave’s “People Ain’t No Good”.
Camille has always been very generous in allowing me to post her mp3s, but the licensing issues are a bit murky since this is a covers album. Considering the trouble I’ve had lately with even 100% legal mp3s, I’m not taking a chance on this one. You can hear samples at the links below.
Camille O’Sullivan – Official Site (Buy CD)
Camille O’Sullivan – MySpace