Stream or purchase COVERS II: http://smarturl.it/CoversII

LA singer-songwriter Greg Laswell has a rare gift for employing metaphor, mystery and honesty with equal acumen. Indeed, those that have spent time with his music over the years have had the distinct privilege of sharing profoundly personal moments with him – even as he left just enough open to interpretation.

Yet when he reimagined songs by the likes of Kate Bush, Kristin Hersh, and Echo & the Bunnymen for his 2009 album Covers, he revealed something else entirely by means of divulging his own most essential musical influences. A decade later, he is revisiting that undertaking with Covers II – which finds him this time communing with Depeche Mode, PJ Harvey, The Verve, even Peter Gabriel.

His 2018 album Next Time, which Popmatters said “brims with introspective imagery,” was arguably his most accomplished to date. But it was 2009’s Covers that still seemed like so much unfinished business. So, Covers II could not be coming at a better time, to reignite the dialogue about those that have influenced him and continue to do so.

Vianney Reyes is following