Strange Boy

Following an engaging indie singer/songwriter debut that showcased her sophisticated, self-examining writing style, onetime jazz prodigy Kate Davis puts a personalized spin on the work of beloved outsider musician Daniel Johnston. A track-for-track cover of his lo-fi 1984 album Retired Boxer, Strange Boy alternates songs with brief, manipulated recordings of interviews with friends reminiscing about Johnston and his music. The approach was inspired by the three-minute spoken opening of the penultimate track, "Strange Boy," which leads into the jaunty two-minute piano song. Here, Davis morphs the musical portion of the track into a visceral, explosive one-minute punk love song. This type of revisioning, including the production work on the interview clips, ultimately makes the endeavor a worthwhile one, where Davis thoughtfully fleshes out arrangements while giving in to off-center impulses of her own. Among the more inspired results is "This Song," which opens with the words "This song's about pain and hope and suffering: love." The update embellishes the tune with drum machine and post-punky guitar-and-keyboard atmosphere, meanwhile punctuating words including "love" with bright vocal harmonies. Highlights of the spoken segments include a memorable, French-accented "One of Her Depressing Playlists," about someone derisively describing Davis' friend's onetime musical tastes as depressing: "Whereas the lyrics were not depressing at all, it was...about the voice and the fact that the guy sounds like he's, I don't know, lonely." Many of the interviewee's voices are distorted in various ways and provided with supportive accompaniment, such as the spooky synths on "He Can Really Rock" ("D.J. is a rock star...he was my kind of guy"). The 18-track album closes with an earnest, reserved take on the oft-covered "True Love Will Find You in the End." A loving tribute that will no doubt be an improvement over the original material to some and a sacrilege to others, Strange Boy's documentary elements add an artful touch to a project that transcends the typical cover-album exercise. ~ Marcy Donelson