Exclusive: Download Neo-Soul Singer Mayer Hawthorne's New Covers EP

Click to listen to Mayer Hawthorne's new EP, 'Impressions"

Mayer Hawthorne's Impressions EP finds the Los Angeles singer and producer putting his own spin on classic tunes by Electric Light Orchestra and the Isley Brothers as well selections by contemporary acts like Chromeo and Jon Brion. Hawthorne's production style is slick and meticulous, calling back to the rich, elegant sound of early Seventies tracks by Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes while including subtle modern touches. Though his takes on ELO's cheery hit "Mr. Blue Sky" and the obscure soul single "You've Got the Makings of a Lover" are remarkably faithful, it's most thrilling to hear Hawthorne reimagine "Don't Turn the Lights On," a recent track by the Montreal electro duo Chromeo, as an orchestral soul slow jam.

Click here to download it for free.

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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