So, I wonder who came up with the idea to celebrate forty years of Radio 1 with a collection of crap cover versions?
I guess probably the same person that came up with the idea of doing the ‘Live Lounge’ series of records that the BBC release. Unfortunately they’ve just gone a little but too far this time..
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not all bad news.. out of the 40 ‘Classic’ songs being covered by modern artists, there are a couple of pleasant surprises.
The opening track, the Kaiser Chiefs version of
Flowers in The Rain’ by ?? Isn’t too bad, it’s a pleasant little number to lauch everything off with.. after that, it all goes pear shaped.
The Fratellis butcher
All Along The Watchtower, The Gossip’s version of
Careless Whisper should have been left on Hampstead Heath along with some of George Michaels dodgier sexual partners , and Razorlight deserve to be taken out back and beaten with a bat for thinking they could do a passable cover of
An Englishman In New York .Huey Lewis would not only die, but he’d spin in his grave if someone played him the Pigeon Detectives doing
The Power Of Love.
All these songs are classics.. performed by classic artists (although some of you might argue about Huey Lewis) The dunderheaded idiots that people think of as ‘pop stars’ these days shouldn’t be let loose on them without someone to have enough bottle to tell them they’re fucking them up… BADLY.
Where songs haven’t been left on the covers battlefield, mutilated and rotting shells of what they were before, them the majority of the other tracks are just.. well.. below average.
But I’m not just gonna sit and moan about all this. as I said earlier, there are a few real surprises. The Enemy, who I’ve never really got into before, do what I think is a fantastic version of Boy zone’s
Father And Son, and Natasha Bedingfield singing
Ray Of Light shows what the girl is capable of if someone would only write some decent songs for her instead of that mindless pop mush she normally churns out. Foo Fighters make a wonderful job of the Wings song
Band On The Run probably the best track on the whole collection. Even McFly do a pretty good version of
A Town Called Malice.
So, to sum up.. it’s not all a disaster, but I’d have a listen and just pick the tracks you want do download , from a reputable source obviously, instead of wasting money buying the whole album and paying for a lot of dross.
Out now on umtv.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ybZzx4xs4JU
