British singer Will Young has had a difficult year. After losing his twin brother, he worked on his new album Crying on the Bathroom Floor. It’s a cover album featuring songs originally written and sung by women. It has become an emotional album where Will Young not only sings covers but also processes his own emotions.
With his unique voice, Will Young rose to fame in England on the television show ‘Pop Idol’. Now, 18 years later, he has released a lot of his own material, but it’s time to create an album that pays tribute to some modern female singers. He says he did this to better empathize with lyrics written by women. All the songs on Crying on the Bathroom Floor have been given a ‘Will Young touch’. He has made them entirely his own, yet the original songs can still be heard clearly.
While the album title may be linked to his own difficult year, it’s also the title of the second track on the album. Originally by MUNA, an American electronic pop band, Crying on the Bathroom Floor has been sung in Will Young’s style, with his longtime producer Richard X replacing most of the electronic pop with acoustic sounds. With Will Young’s high vocal range, this new version has turned out to be very good.
In addition to MUNA, Will Young has also dared to cover artists like Bat For Lashes, Robyn, Everything But The Girl, and London Grammar. On Strong, the singer attempts to replicate the unique sound of London Grammar. It’s definitely a good cover, but it doesn’t quite reach the magical original.
The same happens on I Follow Rivers. Lykke Li’s unique version still stands out here. But perhaps the cover and the original shouldn’t be directly compared. For Will Young, it’s more about empathizing with music written and performed by women. Whether he has achieved that feeling for himself remains a question. In any case, for the listener, the album may seem somewhat unnecessary as Young mostly tries to replicate the original songs.
Nevertheless, Will Young manages to deviate from the well-known original songs with his high vocal range. That’s also the charm of Crying on the Bathroom Floor. The mix of various pop songs is held together strongly by the way he puts emotion into his voice. Every word is sung and conveyed in his own way. Some covers are better executed than others, but Will Young still delivers a nice album. Ideal for listening on a Sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee!
