The Cry Me a River Project

Every year, usually around Christmas, I record a cover version of Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River”, quite possibly the best pop song ever written. Below you will find them, lined up neatly, awaiting your ear.

THE PROJECT:

2007: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Picked acoustic guitar, vocal layers and a double-speed tempo shift!
2008: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Waves of ambient synth, arpeggios and a growly synth-bass – slightly sinister, an early favourite.
2009: Vom Vorton – Cry Me a River
More synths, but a noisier approach this time – lots of distortion and echoey vocals.
2010: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
All ukulele, all the time. Ends up sounding like medieval swing music or something.
2011: Vom Vorton – Cry Me a River
Chiptune version – the music for this one was done using the Gameboy synth app Nanoloop (although not on an actual Gameboy, sadly).
2012: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Dark, slightly goth-y version with autotuned backing vocals and big handclaps.
2013: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Loud and fast synth-rock version with synthesized speech backing vox and a guitar solo – another favourite!
2014: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Kinda punk-rock version with chugging guitars, still some synths in there though. Another uptempo one.
2015: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Slow, whispery, post-rock-influenced version with lots of bass guitar and real drums.
2016: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Recorded to four-track cassette! Wobbly keys, omnichord and echoey drums.
2017: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Funky guitar stabs, synth-bass and a disco beat.
2018: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Based around a lo-fi piano, with glitchy electronics and string samples.
2019: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
“What if Cry Me A River was Dancing On My Own?”
2020: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Moody synth version sung in a lower register, consciously avoids using the main riff.
2021: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Another noisy one – formant-shifted vocals, clattering drums and gated guitar.
2022: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
A fairly sparse arrangement – guitars, drums, casio. Messed with the vocal melody, phrasing and harmonies a bit, elements I usually keep consistent.
2023: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River
Attempting to incorporate dub reggae influences even though I absolutely do not know what I’m doing.

BONUS: Versions recorded OUTSIDE of the project (these are only for the CMAR Project COMPLETIST)

2003: Lardpony – Cry Me A River (Live)
My old band performing the song at (I think) Raffles in Derby.
2003: Lardpony – Cry Me A River (messy demo)
A scrappy home-recorded that pre-dates this project but definitely fits the spirit!
2009: Vom Vorton – Cry Me A River (songsmith version)
Microsoft’s now-dead Songsmith software fills in the music using weird AI.
2010: Chriddof’s noisy remix of the 2009 version
2010: Live acoustic version
(Recorded at home while practising for a gig)
2011: Live full-band version recorded at the Orange Julius 2011 Christmas Reunion
Recording accidentally lost due to knocked over recording device :’-(

Good luck.