This weekend I received my copy of
Emm Gryner's new album "Summer of High Hopes" in the mail. Those of us who pre-ordered got an autographed copy as well as a "bonus CD". This bonus CD happens to be a re-recorded, re-mixed version of Emm's major label record "Public" entitled "PVT" which I can only assume stands for "Public: Version Two". This album had been held in legal custody by her record label for a long 8 years and to commemorate this legal binding ending and her songs returning to her custody she re-recorded them. When I started to listen to it I was so surprised by how different it sounded. It sounded like Emm doing a cover of one of her own songs...is that even possible? Apparently it is. In Emm's
journal she wrote:
i decided not to re-record the songs to mirror the arrangements on 'Public', but 'cover' them, 8 years later. pull them apart and re-acquaint myself with them. so what you get is a moody, intimate record of songs you might not even recognize but for their lyrics. i recorded it, hoping you might listen on headphones late at night, just as i did when i recorded it. there is nothing more chilling than being alone at a church at midnight. i also learned that i had an awful lot to say at 23 years of age, and that things can resonate by taking out a few lines here and there, leaving in only those that really matter. in short, recording PVT was summer's intense trial for me - i put my current frustrations and confusions into these songs, just as i did when i wrote them some years ago.
And there I am, listening to it late at night (though, not in a church) on my headphones. It was perfect, thank you Emm. I hadn't even tried that, I read that entry after the fact, I am so glad it worked out that way, it's lovely. Emm, whose covers records are breathtaking has taken on her own music to re-do. Her mostly peppy pop music of one of her first albums now mellowed into a breathy and more mature sounding take on the same emotions.
Here is the "Public" version versus the "PVT" version of one of her songs:
