Ana Egge – Lazy Days

A poet wrote, “Now that you’ve wasted your life here, in this small corner, you’ve destroyed it everywhere in the world.” Ana Egge begs to differ. This 30-minute set of ten covers (the inevitable quip being she felt too torpid for writing) reveals the inspiring indulgences of wasting precious time, of doing nothing for the delights of nothing itself. Many of these covers are love songs, since love — as Ray Davies, Stephen Stills, Harry Nilsson and Ron Sexsmith know — is most often laying time to waste and most sweet when forgetting there’s anything else to do, think or feel. Egge approaches Arcade Fire’s “In The Backseat” and Gene Autry’s “It’s My Lazy Day” with the same insouciant romanticism, letting a host of friends chime in with offhand harmonies, drums, trumpet, steel guitar, cello and piano. If the album never finds a climax, it perfectly captures the beauty of musical indolence.