During the sessions for Taken by Trees' fifth album, the band's mainstay Victoria Bergsman decided to take a break in order to pay tribute to one of her favorite singers and songwriters Colin Blunstone. Calling in old friends Bjorn Yttling and John Eriksson and working with co-producer Freja the Dragon, Bergsman crafts a fitting tribute to Blunstone on Another Year. Focusing on his solo work rather than the Zombies, specifically his 1971 album One Year and it's 1972 follow-up Ennismore, Bergsman and co. make subtle changes to the original arrangements and take a sideways route to capturing the kind of rapturous melancholy of Blunstone's originals. On "Say You Don't Mind" and "Time's Running Out" she replaces the strings with vibes, bongos, electric keys, and the kind of harmonica one might hear on a Beach Boys record, while giving the vocals her usual deeply sad, impossibly delicate best. It's a magical, almost entrancing sound that's bolstered by tender clouds of backing vocals and soft clarinets. On both "Caroline Goodbye" and "I Don't Believe in Miracles," most of the grandeur of the originals is stripped away to leave gently struck piano chords, tender clouds of backing vocals, and Bergsman's subtle singing to put the emotions across. It works very, very well. They take it to extremes on "She Loves the Way They Love Her," which when done by Blunstone has a peppy skip and scamper that the band completely erase here. Instead, they turn the song into a cross between a Velvet Underground ballad and soft, sad jazz. It's a daring move that doesn't work quite as well as other gambits undertaken elsewhere, if only because the original is so divine. High marks for giving it a go, though. That it gets an A- instead of an A only brings the overall grade down a tiny bit. With Taken by Trees, Bergsman has made a solid career out of sonic exploration and intense feeling, and what she does with Colin Blunstone's music is of a piece with what she did with Middle Eastern sounds, tropical vibes, and contemporary pop -- made them her own. ~ Tim Sendra, Rovi

1		Say You Don't Mind
2		Time's Running Out
3		Caroline Good Bye
4		I Don't Believe In Miracles
5		She Loves the Way They Love Her

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