A Cover Album’s Quiet Beauty

Leave Me Breathless is Ane Brun’s collection of cover songs. This comes as her 8th album since 2003. She is a Norwegian singer and songwriter who writes, records and even runs her own label. The album is full of intimate arrangements behind her soft and airy voice.

The first track on the album is Brun’s version of “I Want to Know What Love Is,” originally done by the band Foreigner. The song was Foreigner’s biggest hit when it was released in 1984. The power ballad lends itself well to the acoustic arrangement found on this album. It still captures some of the ‘80s soft rock grandeur with clean electric guitar arpeggios. Her delivery of the melody is delicate as well as agile. The song is raised from the original key so it offers her the dramatic choice of singing in a lower octave when the chorus starts. Typically the chorus would be the climactic point of the song, but Brun creates an emotional difference from the rest of the track with the noticeably dry and empty chorus of a single guitar, muted piano and her soothing voice.

Brun chooses some more obscure songs to cover on this album which sets her apart from some artists that do the often heard jazz standards. For example, her version of Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely” is an interesting take on the rock band’s song from 1999. The original is a slow and haunting track with big strings and a mass of different sounds. Once again, she creates a pretty backdrop of piano chords for her vocals. Her small changes in the melody and the little note riffs she does make the cover unique.

“Make You Feel My Love” was originally written by Bob Dylan, famously recorded by Billy Joel and Adele and now covered on this album. Brun’s take doesn’t sound too different from the Adele version, which the British singer did in 2008, with the exception of the interesting string and slide guitar parts in the second half of the song. Vocally, Brun and Adele are similar in their style with their soft, breathy approach, however, Brun never leaves that register into more of a belting style which would be nice to hear once in awhile. There’s no part in the album that really shows her vocal power.

The most instrumentally bare song on the album is the final track, “Big Yellow Taxi.” Backed by a large choir, Brun delivers a warm cover of Joni Mitchell’s song from 1970. It’s a beautiful rendition of the song which lyrically deals with environmental concerns.

Leave Me Breathless takes 14 songs, originally done by other artists and has a different spin put on them by Brun. Her characteristic, lifting vocals make the album an easy listening experience. Most importantly, there’s enough emotional weight in each song to mark them gripping performances.