Single: Mark Ronson - Just (feat. Phantom Planet)

Mark Ronson can seemingly do no wrong at the moment. He is in demand and raking in the awards (although quite how a producer managed to get a Brit for Best Male was a little beyond me). Ronson takes songs that have already had success and revamps them into what is arguably, for some listeners, tracks that are more interesting and better than the original.

Is Ronson the genius that some areas of the press make him out to be or just someone who takes other people’s genius and twist is slightly to make a pretence that he some kind of amazing music master?

Just is a Radiohead classic and is loved by many. Thom York’s vocals and the music of this band who have such a huge following of devoted fans needed no reworking did it? Whilst this single is in no way offensive, I really don’t see the point of these Ronson re-workings. He adds classic tunes and horns to Just that simply seem unnecessary. Just as the wafer thin mint was too much for Mr Creosote in Monty Python’s Meaning Of Life, I find all the added production to Just detracts the listener from the genius of Thom Yorke’s song and it is the simplicity of the original that made the song. The fact that the original was not over produced was it’s genius – a fact that Ronson appears to have been unable to grasp here. Making it a more complicated productions seems to me to detract from song. Ronson may well be a decent producer, but I would like to see him stay behind the scenes and work with bands to get the best out of them, not take what is already there and play around to create a few slightly differing sounding versions of a song and then sell them to a public who really should know better.

Mark Ronson is certainly talented but his constant need to re-issue other people’s songs just feels a little like someone wanting the fame without having the originality to create music of his own. Phantom Planet’s Alex Greenwood adds the vocals here and he simply does not have the vocal talent of Thom Yorke which just adds to the frustration of listening to this single.

This might work in a nightclub or as a Bside somewhere but this, together with so many of Ronson’s other efforts just feels too much like a producer and record company trying to make money by selling an inferior product.

This single is available now.

www.markronson.co.uk
www.myspace.com/markronson

*Charlie Parker* · 16th March 2008, 7:55pm

If this was an origonal song it'd still be awful

Posh · 17th March 2008, 3:05pm

I fucking love the instrumental version of this that was recorded for a Radiohead tribute album a couple of years ago but the addition of the guy from Phantom Planet for the version on, uhh, 'Version' ruins it.

*Potatojunkie* · 17th March 2008, 3:19pm

Is this the goon that shat all over Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before?

*investigates*

Yes, it is too.
Fuck this guy.

Zooropa · 17th March 2008, 3:26pm

Music to wet the bed to.
I just don't get it.

System_Star · 17th March 2008, 3:50pm

Mark Ronson is hot. That's all I have to add to this.

**djtoast** · 17th March 2008, 4:19pm

I quite like the idea of what Mark Ronson does, but the end result is just too elevatory somehow. The one i mind least is Valerie, despite having heard it a billion times.

In general though it's just not executed quite skillfully enough. The doubtless good instrumentalists are hamstrung by sub-standard arrangements that sounds like they were churned out by an A-Level music student. So you end up with not the truly interesting collaborations we've seen before that deserve this level of attention (Run DMC & Aerosmith, say... Courtney Pine & Roni Size...) but a bland version of them most likely to appeal to those thirty-something Guardian readers who believe themselves to be more youthful than they really are.

djbarry · 17th March 2008, 4:34pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by djtoast

but a bland version of them most likely to appeal to those thirty-something Guardian readers who believe themselves to be more youthful than they really are.

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