Brandon's Buzz

Michael Grimm — “Red” (from Michael Grimm) —

For roughly the first forty-five seconds or so, I was violently offended by this, for a plethora of reasons: Grimm — the last man standing in last summer’s edition of America’s Got Talent, NBC’s poor man’s Idol takeoff — is a fine singer to be sure, but he mostly sounds as though he’s trying too damn hard to ape my magnificent Marc Broussard (who, incidentally, is back this week with a sterling new record), and his major-label debut is top-heavy with largely inferior covers (apart from this song, Grimm also attempts to put his stamp on classics from Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, and, of all people, Alicia Keys). Besides, the new has yet to wear off of Daniel Merriweather’s brilliant original take on this tune, which appeared only last year, on Merriweather’s divine debut album. Still, guided by the strong hand of iconic producer Don Was, something entirely fascinating begins to emerge here: whereas Merriweather attacks these verses with a smothering, soulful verve that his bee-you-tee-full baby face seems wholly incapable of being able to conjure, Grimm underplays the words from start to (almost) stop, bringing to bear a clipped edge of hard, raspy drama that — given what you know and love about the original — has absolutely no right to work, and yet kinda sorta does anyway. (Was’ astonishing arrangement of the instrumentation, which swaps out Merriweather’s full-on wall-of-sound approach for a loosely lush string-driven aura of organic bliss, helps immeasurably in that regard.) As much as I hate to admit it: a muted, tender triumph.