I am late in showing my appreciation for this beautiful cover that Bruno Merz released about a month ago but like the old adage goes, “better late than never.”
Many moons ago, I stumbled onto the music of Bruno on Soundcloud. The platform is a source of untapped greatness and also a source of crap. Gratefully, Bruno’s music falls into untapped greatness. When he released his album HIGHWAYS, I was able to interview Bruno and there is one thing he said that has stuck with me: “When I discovered following your joy, finding what it is that you lose track of time and trying to direct your life so you can do that as much as possible. You’ll start enjoying life a lot more and you’ll find that things fall into place. I think that’s the secret to happiness and finding who you are is following your natural instincts of what makes you happy.”
With this cover of Reece Jacob‘s song, it is obvious that despite the emotional lyrics, Bruno has found and followed his joy. There’s no need to do a side by side comparison of original to the cover, what Bruno is able to bring to the table is the sheer heartache of one person. You feel the sadness, the heartache, and the brokenness of the soul. The quiet hurt in the music parlays into an emotional equivalent of seeing a broken and beaten Hemingway sitting at a dark and dusty bar with a bottle of whiskey and a cigarette as his only company.
In short, the song hits you in the soul.
Bruno said this of “Breathe Less”, “I did a tour of the UK last year with my dear friend Reece Jacob. This was one of the songs he would sing every night opening for us. I fell in love with it and asked him if he would let me cover it. Hope I’ve done it justice! It was a song I definitely could relate to a few years back.”
Mr. Merz, you’ve done it justice and we relate to the song now. Bravo sir. Bravo.
Listen to “Breathe Less” now.
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Released by: Black Robin Records
Photo courtesy of Bruno Merz’ Facebook
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