Submitted by William Elgin

Tampa, Florida native Dru Cutler, now a Brooklyn transplant and a respected member of the Big Apple indie music community, has released a two-song EP sampler previewing his upcoming full-length studio platter Bring Closer the Distance. The two songs, a cover of Leonard Cohen’s lesser known gem “Dance Me to the End of Love” and the original “Oceanside”, are wildly different in some respects. To his credit, Cutler isn’t content with merely aping Cohen’s original as a form of backhanded tribute or whatever else and instead, recasts the song as a whiskey-soaked dancehall number. The rockier strains of “Oceanside” and the personal nature of its lyrical content provide a striking contrast for listeners without ever seeming like an ill-fit. Cutler’s unabashed confidence in tackling material from one of the 20th century’s most respected songwriters gives me kind of a jolt and his willingness to make the tune his own stands in stark difference with his lesser contemporaries who would have pursued the path of least resistance if they bothered to cover the song at all.