Search - Hazel O'Connor :: Cover Plus

Best release of O'Connor's new wave years

06/08/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Cover Plus displays marked improvement in songwriting skills over Hazel O'Connor's two previous albums, Breaking Glass and Sons and Lovers. Whereas previously her lyrics often consisted of social commentary which was frequently marred by sloganeering and cliches, but which nonetheless had a strange charm to them, O'Connor here began to write from personal experience, with greatly improved results. Although still basic rock in nature, the textures of the music are more complex than on earlier releases. Her third release in a two-year period, Cover Plus also marks the return of Breaking Glass producer Tony Visconti, whose absence was sorely missed Sons and Lovers. He tones down the punkish production of Sons and Lovers in favor of a more polished, mainstream pop sound, without losing the energetic feel of O'Connor's previous releases. Earlier influences such as David Bowie and Lene Lovich are still apparent, but O'Connor's likable personality is displayed to great effect. Featuring areas of music which O'Connor would later explore more thoroughly, such as the cabaret stylings of "That's Life," this album contains O'Connor's last two major British chart hits, "(Cover Plus) We're All Grown Up," and her chilling remake of the Stranglers' "Hanging Around." Shortly after this album's release legal problems with her record company would temporarily derail O'Connor's career, and she didn't emerge again until three years later with the now deleted Smile album, which brought with it an abrupt change in style, with which she would never again have the massive commercial impact she had in the early '80s. O'Connor would continue to mature as an artist after this album; as it stands, though, Cover Plus remains the most satisfying recording of O'Connor's new wave years."