Shannon Noll’s ‘Raw’: The Cover Album Conundrum
By Daniel Sumpton | Misfit Media Columnist
The new album by national treasure Shannon Noll hit shelves and streaming services on the 28th of May. The album consist of a small collection of new songs, a couple covers, and many stripped back, sleek acoustic versions of some of the greatest hits by Noll. Raw is consistently smooth and more polished than its album title would suggest. Debuting at number 3 on the ARIA charts, Raw was a successful route for Noll to return to the spotlight. Although the album was a hit, it could have potentially shoved him into an unfortunate box that other Australian artists are stuck in.
One example of boxed Aussie musicians is another Australian Idol contestant, and in this case winner, Damien Leith. After Leith blasted onto the scene with his hit debut Where We Land, he quickly followed it up with the successful cover album Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation. Things seemed well for the artist until he released his third and flop record that consisted of original tracks Remember June. Leith quickly rectified this flop with perhaps his most well-known release Roy: A Tribute to Roy Orbison, but was then stuck in a permanent loop until the eventual downfall of his career. Damien Leith will be forever stuck in Mother’s Day displays at your local entertainment store next to Human Nature CDs and a boxed set of Murder, She Wrote. This is the same limitation Shannon Noll may have just found himself in, (except that Noll would be in the Father’s Day section).
Shannon Noll’s career has recently shown parallels to Leith’s. The last two albums by Noll, A Million Suns and Unbroken did not show the same level of success that Raw has already obtained in a little over a week. There is something that makes Noll’s case particularly unique though. It is relatively unheard of for a musician to pass off a record that mostly consists of acoustic rerecording’s of his own songs as a new studio album. That fact alone makes the future of Noll’s career difficult to predict. There are also Australian artists who have survived the cover album conundrum, but they have far more of a “pop factor” than Shannon Noll. Delta Goodrem’s Bridge over Troubled Dreams recently hit number 1 on the ARIA charts after a cover album of Olivia Newton-John songs I Honestly Love You and an obligatory Christmas album. Guy Sebastian also bounced back with smash hit originals after his cover record that is unoriginally titled The Memphis Album.
The only thing that is certain is Shannon Noll has been placed in a tricky position that many other Australian artists have put themselves in before. Only his next move can determine the future of his career.