On the heels of her 1977 U.K. hit -- a cover of
Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed" --
Julie Covington went back into the studio with producers
Joe Boyd and
John Wood to record 11 more tracks for what would be her self-titled second album.
Boyd helped put together a stellar cast to support
Covington -- including
Richard Thompson,
Simon Nicol,
Ian Matthews, and
Trevor Lucas from the various incarnations of
Fairport Convention, as well as
Steve Winwood,
John Cale,
Andy Fairweather-Low, and a collection of top-shelf session players. When it came to material, he was also helpful in gathering a fine collection of songs for
Covington to wrap her powerful, theater-honed voice around.
Boyd brought
Thompson's "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" and
Sandy Denny's previously unreleased "By the Time It Gets Dark" to the project, while
Covington added the
Weill/
Brecht composition "Barbara's Song" from her days in the theater, to a list that included tunes from
Kate Bush,
Steve Winwood, and
Kate and
Anna McGarrigle. There's a slight commercial sheen to the music that gives the
Thompson and
Denny tracks a certain accessibility ("Bright Lights" was the first single), while "Barbara's Song" fits naturally with
Andy Fairweather-Low's dancehall shuffle "Dancing in the Dark," or
John Lennon's "How." On the other hand,
Tom T. Hall's rocking "I Can't Dance" is stiff and not really well-suited to
Covington, while
Anna McGarrigle's "Dead Weight" seems forced and a bit rushed, lacking the subtle venom and dark humor of the original. Reissued in 2000,
Julie Covington...Plus, which is a nice mix of folk-rock and pop, adds the bombastic "Only Women Bleed" along with a respectable cover of
Little Feat's "Easy to Slip" to the original 1978 release (Julie Covington). Both songs were previously only available as a single. ~ Brett Hartenbach