TORONTO — Jann Arden’s nostalgia trip faced a major detour partway through making "Mixtape," her new album of 1990s pop covers.
When the Calgary-based singer-songwriter first set out to record a throwback project with producing partner Russell Broom, the two imagined her taking on classic songs from further back in the zeitgeist than three decades ago.
They saw it as a 1970s rock-inspired affair featuring her spins on Blondie’s “Call Me,” Cat Stevens’ “Moonshadow” and Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper.” All those songs were recorded, but none appear on the final project.
Instead, Arden’s 16th studio album looks quite different than her original idea. It mainly features '90s tracks that were climbing the global music charts at the same time that Arden's breakout singles "Insensitive" and "Good Mother" were all over the radio.
Staying open to creative compromise has served the oft-self-deprecating, eight-time Juno winner well over the years as she's expanded her brand outside of music. Her career has spanned work as a TV personality, novelist, podcast host, and the star of her own CTV sitcom.
"I'm not Margaret Atwood, and I'm not Maria Callas,” she said pointing to the acclaimed Canadian novelist and the legendary soprano who was recently portrayed in a biopic by Angelina Jolie.
"I'm just this artist that floats in the atmosphere.”
That perspective might help explain why Arden was willing to reshape "Mixtape" partway through its creation.
“We were well on our way to making this nutty, I don't know what it was, more '70s and '80s album,” Arden explained in a call from her home.
“And when I got it to the label, they liked where I was going.”
Except Arden says the leaders at Universal Music Canada were stuck on how to market a throwback of half-century-old songs in a contemporary landscape.
“How do we sell this? And what is it?” she remembers them asking her.
They suggested Arden wade into the '90s, a fruitful period for pop music that would be catnip to Arden's fans. After giving it some thought, she saw their point.
“From a marketing point of view, it really did make sense,” she said.
And so she began working on the revised album, which is arguably an even nuttier execution than her initial concept. It draws on songs that wouldn't instantly bring to mind Arden's syllabically pronounced singing style, and which carry a certain cool factor the singer never really courted herself.
However, Arden said she felt a connection to many of the songs before she recorded them. She remembers some of the hits existing in her orbit around the time her 1994 album "Living Under June" found its audience, and confesses she sometimes wondered if her own music compared.
"There was a lot of envy on my part," she said. "And I remember having impostor syndrome a little bit. Like, what am I doing here? And do I belong with all these people?"
Arden doesn't seem to carry the same anxieties she did back then. She's figured out her place in the Canadian entertainment industry — she doesn't consider herself a celebrity and humbly remarks she's "not really relevant" in the grander scheme of things.
"I mean these things earnestly," she said.
"I know what my place is in the world because I live it every day — and it's making stuff. I just like to make stuff."
"Mixtape" is an assemblage of that perspective; a collection of random '90s moments with a light Arden touch.
Her version of Seal's "Crazy" sees Arden trade his smooth funkiness for a more haunting tone that begins when her voice emerges from a fog of swirling guitars. Her take on Des’ree’s “You Gotta Be” strips out the English singer's soulful purr for Arden's more instructive delivery.
A swing at TLC's "Waterfalls" goes heavy on a psychedelic synth vibe in a way that sounds closest to Arden's original vision for the album.
She also slips in a few tracks recorded before the concept changed, such as Don Henley’s 1984 hit “Boys of Summer” and Simon and Garfunkel's late '60s classic "The Boxer." A cover of Sia's 2004 single "Breathe Me" helps earn the album's slipshod title.
"There's a sense of comfort that I hope people derive from it," she said.
"It's very nostalgic."
Absent are any renditions of songs originally performed by Canadians, which Arden says wasn't intentional. She said she briefly considered tackling Sarah McLachlan’s “Building a Mystery” before concluding that she would've been out of her mind to mount such an ambitious effort.
Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn" was also on the table at one point and she flirted with bringing a female perspective to Tom Petty’s 1994 hit “You Don’t Know How It Feels.”
While none of those were committed to tape, Arden wonders if there's still a life for the handful that were.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with the stuff we recorded, but it's all so cool," she said.
"You'll never hear a more wacky version of '(Don't Fear) the Reaper.'"
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 19, 2025.
David Friend, The Canadian Press
