The follow-up to the singer/songwriter and virtuosic instrumentalist's 2019 full-length debut, When You're Ready, ...But I'd Rather Be with You sees Molly Tuttle deliver a collection of cover songs that showcases both her chops and her eclectic tastes. Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Andrew Bird), who places Tuttle's expressive voice front and center, the ten-song set is bright and engaging, which is all the more impressive considering it was constructed piecemeal with Tuttle recording all of her parts at home in ...
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The follow-up to the singer/songwriter and virtuosic instrumentalist's 2019 full-length debut, When You're Ready, ...But I'd Rather Be with You sees Molly Tuttle deliver a collection of cover songs that showcases both her chops and her eclectic tastes. Produced by Tony Berg (Phoebe Bridgers, Andrew Bird), who places Tuttle's expressive voice front and center, the ten-song set is bright and engaging, which is all the more impressive considering it was constructed piecemeal with Tuttle recording all of her parts at home in Nashville and Berg applying contributions from L.A. session musicians, including Matt Chamberlain and Patrick Warren. Commencing with a stirring rendition of the National's "Fake Empire," Tuttle quickly switches gears and gives the Rolling Stones' psych-pop classic "She's a Rainbow" a folk-pop makeover, with her deft fingerpicking transforming the song's jaunty piano lines into intricate Doc Watson-worthy runs. She imbues Arthur Russell's pained "A Little Lost" with warmth and a playful gait and treats Harry Styles' "Sunflower, Vol. 6" like it should have appeared on Taylor Swift's Folklore. Elsewhere, FKA twigs' "Mirrored Heart" becomes a high and lonesome country-folk lament, as does an aching rendition of the Grateful Dead's "Standing on the Moon," the latter of which is helped along by an empathetic harmony vocal from Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith. Aptly named, ...But I'd Rather Be with You's emotional throughline is loneliness, and Tuttle does the feeling justice on a faithful rendition of Cat Stevens' "How Can I Tell You," which brings affairs to a close with subtle potency. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi
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