Rickie Lee Jones transforms songs by the Beatles, Traffic, Steely Dan, Gershwin and Lerner and Loewe on Her Incredible Album - It’s Like This! Cut from the Original Analog Tape by Kevin Grey and Pressed at RTI on Two Slabs of 45-RPM Virgin Vinyl! No one can take a song and make it her own like Rickie Lee Jones. It's Like This finds Jones and her top-notch team of instrumentalists doing justice to the brilliant material she's selected, creating a musical wonderland where timeless songs meet spirited, lovely performances. On this September 2001 release, she does just that by taking on standards, show tunes, '70s soul, and even slick jazz-rock, interpreting them with her familiar childlike, breathy shouts.
This is her third collection of interpretations of other artists' works. What's striking about It's Like This is how effortlessly Jones, also a consummate arranger, weaves together songs from so many different genres and eras and make them sound as if she's just written them herself. Her unconventional choice of material is complemented by her equally fresh selection of musicians: Joe Jackson, Ben Folds, and Taj Mahal are all present, adding their styles to Jones's jazzy remakes.
Jones' subversion is so delicate that her covers often seem closer to tribute than to interpretation. Her take on Traffic’s “Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys” is stunning! But while her reading of the Beatles' "For No One" (with Joe Jackson on piano) is true to the original, there is a sly wink in there. But there's also a syncopated jazz version of "On the Street Where You Live" which is cool enough to get even twenty year olds heading down to Ronnie Scott's. And fortunately, Rickie also goes beyond the clichéd songbook, choosing songs which the soaring yet contemplative voice lends itself perfectly to, and makes her own. There’s an impassioned “For No One” by the Beatles, a lovely “Cycles,” (which Frank Sinatra used to sing), and Steely Dan's spirited “Show Biz Kids” which she perfectly transforms into a Rickie Lee Jones song! This is a great re-issue; greatly enhanced by getting the true audiophile treatment!
"The Rickie Lee Jones 45-RPM is AWESOME – UNREAL - AMAZING!!! I have to get a backup copy. I'll play this one to death!"
- Danny Kaey, Positive-Feedback
1 Show Biz Kids (Becker, Fagen) 4:35
2 Trouble Man (Gaye) 5:12
3 For No One (Lennon, McCartney) 2:32
4 Smile (Chaplin, Parsons, Turner) 1:49
5 Low Spark of High Heeled Boys (Capaldi, Winwood) 5:13
6 On The Street Where You Live (Lerner, Loewe) 3:26
7 I Can't Get Started (Duke, Gershwin) 4:30
8 Lazy River (Arodin, Carmichael) 2:50
9 Someone to Watch over Me (Gershwin, Gershwin) 2:03
10 Cycles (Caldwell) 3:16
11 One Hand, One Heart (Bernstein, Soudheim) 1:58
