Martinez Tribune The website of the Martinez Tribune.
BY MARIANA GARRICK
Colin Hay’s thirteenth studio album I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself is a creative cover album. The album features ten versions of some of his favorite songs that are mostly from the 60’s that include The Beatles, Dusty Springfield, The Kinks, Jimmy Cliff, Blind Faith, Faces, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Glen Campbell, and Del Amitri. The 35-minute-long record was produced with the help of Chad Fischer, who has worked with Hay since his 1994 album Topanga. The collection’s name was ideal considering the 68-year-old had no idea what to do when he first began creating this album.
“This record was unplanned, but I’m glad it came to be. Gerry Marsden (leader of the band Gerry and the Pacemakers) sadly had just died, and I was sitting around in the basement, playing major 7th chords, as you do, and I started singing “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying” to myself. So I switched on the machines with the pretty lights and recorded it. Just vocals and guitar. I sent it to my best man, Chad Fischer, and said, “See what you can do with this,” and he did. It sounded more than delightful to both of us. He said, “Send me another.” And so it went, until we had ten. Quite enough for the moment,” said Hay in a statement.
The album opens with a cover of Dusty Springfield’s song “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself.” Hay’s version of the groovy 1964 hit is almost just as passionate as the original. Springfield’s inimitable elegant voice can never be replicated, but Hay’s somber tone sounds as if he is longing for the same thing Springfield once was during the making of this song.
The album picks up a bit of speed with The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” which has a more cheerful mood. The 1967 classic was reinvented by the former front man of Men at Work with the hushed sounds of violins at the start of the song instead of a guitar—which ends up creeping its way in a few seconds into the song.
Hay’s version of “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying” takes a darker turn than what Gerry & the Pacemakers intended for their own creation. Both versions are sublime, but the singer’s cover is a bit lonelier with only the background sounds of a piano, violin and guitar as compared to the original which consisted of drums and orchestral transitions between verses.
He does the same thing to Del Amitri’s “Driving with the Brakes On.” The original song opens up with the familiar sounds of the synthesizer—something that Hay doesn’t really use on this album. He puts a newer twist on the song with isolated tones and showcases how powerful his vocals still are after all these years.
Of course, nothing beats the originals, but Hay came extremely close with his newer renditions. The Scottish native’s versions are just as respectable and authentic as the originals are as he puts his own acoustic twist on each track. Instead of completely changing the classics, he added his own style and taste to them. Covering songs from his childhood, I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself shows how much Hay has matured over the years, and just what he’s reflecting on during this pandemic-induced time in isolation.
