Album Review: Petra Haden - Petra Goes To The Movies

Petra Haden is perhaps best known for her violin mastery, having shown off such talent with Beck, the Foo Fighters, etc. But oddly enough, it's her voice that is her real talent.

Following on from previous efforts like the a cappella cover version of The Who Sell Out, Haden presents us here with 16 of her favourite tunes from the movies, nearly entirely stripped bare, all parts recorded and dubbed by Haden herself. You can say nothing if not praise for her daring.

The songs here vary between films and cinematic styles. It's easy to imagine that these tracks are simply songs that Haden herself loved growing up. Assumptions like that are possible on a record such as this, where the distant and disconnected are imbued with the personal. The key here is Haden's warm touch; she rarely tries to replicate the exact sound of the instruments with her voice, opting for the classier approach by trying (and often succeeding) to replicate the feeling of them, especially on key tracks Cool Hand Luke and The Social Network's Hand Covers Bruise. Her astonishing range is her greatest gift.

Despite her technical prowess and beautiful/fun arrangements (Hitchcock's Psycho Prelude is a blast), the album on the whole fails somewhat to hit home. Any cover album is at immediate risk due to comparison and the odds of many a cappella devotees being so familiar with the songs from Cinema Paradiso or 8½ that they need to hear vocal interpretations of the songs is slim. This is a good album that occasionally escapes its novelty-heavy nature, but never enough to move like the films it loves.