Hurrah! The illustrious Existential Hero (aka Steven Ray Morris) sent us his covers record! What’s more, it’s a pleasure to listen to! Like you’d expect anything else. . . .

Morris gives a bevy of artists the lo-fi treatment here: everyone from Bob Dylan, Beck and the Magnetic Fields to his already lo-fi buddies Jellybean!, Marc with a C and Tinyfolk. That sort of juxtaposition makes every song imperative, and it certainly does justice to both the national and the local artists. His buddies are talented folk!

Nevertheless, the record is more than showing off his inspirations and friends. Instead of doing straight covers, Morris experiments. A LOT. Different rhythms, extra instruments, mountains of effects. A few times it seems a bit overkill when a more simplistic approach would be more endearing (most notably the unnecessary pitch shifting in Beck’s “Lost Cause” and Watercolor Painting’s “Get Out Of The Way Or A Whale Will Swallow You”). But of course, we love experimentation, so Morris gets oodles of credit on that front. Still, Morris seems to be at his best when only he uses his wonderfully earnest voice and ukelele (see Jellybean!’s “Pokesong” and The Beatles’s “Misery”). That’s not to say his attempt to create (fairly faithfully) The Magnetic Fields’s “Plant White Roses” isn’t phenomenal. IT IS. And let’s not forget the adorableness of A Lime Tree’s “Cup of Love” with a “YMCA” chorus thrown in the middle.

Mr. Morris himself calls the covers record “part self-indulgent and part love song to the lo-fi community I’m obsessed with.” Accurate? Indeed. Also incredibly charming.

Existential Hero - Dear Apollo (Tinyfolk cover).mp3

Visit the Existential Hero MySpace page to hear more. Lots more. And grab his records!