Cle Char Harris - Miacetti & VVL Resilience
Cle Char Harris’ new album Miacetti & VVL Resilience is making waves throughout the music space. This twenty-track album features twenty cover versions of classic songs. Each interpretation of these classic pieces is special and creates its own unique listening experience that adds something new to the sound or meaning of the original.
“Marine Corps Hymn” opens the album and its Soulful R&B Pop feel is a great teaser for what is to come throughout the album. I have heard other versions of this song before many times, often in films, but have never heard it interpreted quite like this - so I love it as an opener as it is something familiar but also new. Up next are two versions of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, a NeoSoul R&B Pop Bossa Jazz Version and its instrumental version. I enjoy the beautiful passion exhibited within the vocal version as it captures the spirit of the original version while adding this artist’s personal touch to it; this version highlights the vocals a great deal, perhaps overshadowing the stirring instrumental. The separate instrumental track is beautiful in its own right and I feel like it is important to release it as its own separate track so we as the listeners can really understand the sheer beauty of the entire song - so this was an awesome choice to include on the album.
Two versions of “My Way” follow - again a version with vocals and one without. The vocal version features that familiar NeoSoul R&B vibe that the songs so far have had. I will be completely honest, I have heard many versions of “My Way” before and have never really liked a version of the song - until now. This version is incredibly powerful and moving - themes that you will see prevail throughout the entire album - and really led me to discover an appreciation for the original and a love for this version. The instrumental is well-crafted and a joy to listen to as well. “Seven Spanish Angels” is a song I was only a little familiar with the original version of before listening, but, wow. This cover version splendidly fuses Country Folk and Pop in a way that reminds me of the original but stands as its own awesome experience. Most interestingly I found was the vocal production on this one, it really makes the song a standout.
“Life Every Voice and Sing” is next and again we have two versions, a Soulful Hymn and an instrumental. The instrumental really feeds into the vocal performance here, setting up the overall song in a way that allows the vocals to shine; getting to hear the instrumental separate to see how this comes to be is a real treat. I really enjoy the melodic spacing utilized in this song, with this technique helping the passionate vocals shine bright. “Fly Me To The Moon” is ninth and I love how Cle Char Harris captures the classic Jazziness of the original piece - yet again, a brilliant interpretation of a legendary song. The Pop-Rock/Folk “As Tears Go By” is tenth and it is probably my personal favorite from the album, providing just a fantastic listening experience that I enjoy a great deal. “Green Green Grass of Home” follows and this one really presents the kind of experience you hope for when reimagining a classic. I could see this one being used as a promotional single for the album as it highlights the diverse skillset featured across this album while standing out as a top song.
“I Don’t Want to Talk About It” has the feeling of a quintessential NeoSoul song and it is definitely one that you will not want to miss among the rest of the songs on this album. It is certainly yet another standout song! “The Scientist” is one where I have a lot of personal experience listening to the original and I found this cover to be phenomenal and very touching. I also like this song’s inclusion compared to the others on the album; it is more contemporary and has a completely different vibe, though it simultaneously feels like it fits perfectly. The legendary “Lean On Me” is next and, wow, Cle Char Harris does this song justice. This song has such a different feeling compared to the original but it still has that same powerful spirit within that hits home. “Everything I Own” is one that I had not really heard before now and I have a great appreciation for both this cover version and the original after listening.
Sixteenth is “Help Me Make It Through The Night” and I love the epic fusion of Blues, Country and Pop featured in this song. This one was another that felt like a good candidate for a single release and it contains a lot of the best features that the rest of the album has. One of my personal favorite songs, “The Long and Winding Road” follows and I absolutely love what Cle Char Harris does with this version - it is magic. Ever powerful, “The Rose” is yet another can’t-miss song and this is a true soul-stirring experience from start to finish. The penultimate track from the album is “Remember When” which has my personal favorite instrumental from the album which provided the perfect platform for the passionate vocals to pair with. “Four Strong Winds” closes out the album on the highest of high notes and I adore the Caribbean-Latin-Jazz feel this song has and how Cle Char Harris embraces and expands on that sound.
One potentially overlooked aspect of a cover album is how, if you listen to one in its entirety, you can find classic songs that you have somehow missed - this happened a few times in my listening of this album with songs I had barely heard or had not heard at all and I absolutely love the magic of discovery that was sprinkled into the listening experience with this album. I also love hearing the variations on these legendary songs that Cle Char Harris mixed in; you can tell this artist has a massive amount of love for these songs with how soulfully and passionately they are performed. We have the entire album embedded below via Spotify - please take a listen!
