As much as I love compilations (especially soundtracks and tributes) I wasn't planning to review one for the blog. I was hoping to keep the blog purely a place for albums. However during the week SPIN magazine issued this tribute to Nirvana's Nevermind and the opportunity seemed too good to pass up.
Nevermind is probably the signature album of my generation. The iconic cover image of a naked infant swimming for a dollar could be the most recognised album art since Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's an album I know and love, and a collection of songs so familiar they feel like part of me.
With that in mind I decided that I'd try a different approach when it came to reviewing this tribute. Rather than taking the time to familiarise myself with the songs I'd record my first impressions of these covers. I reserve the right to change my opinions over time, but this will stand as a record of what I thought the first time I heard these songs.
1) Smells Like Teen Spirit - Meat Puppets
Meat Puppets are no strangers to Nirvana, quite literally. The brothers Kirkwood performed with Nirvana at their iconic Unplugged session, during which three Meat Puppets songs were covered by Nirvana. I don't know if they were too afraid to do anything with Teen Spirit, but their cover is pretty flavourless. Essentially what they've done is trace an exact replica of the original. However in doing so they've reduced it from three dimensions to two. An inauspicious start to the album. (those of you interested in how this song should be covered please ask Tori Amos)
2) In Bloom - Butch Walker & the Black Widows
To be honest I have no idea who Butch Walker is. He has been completely absent from my radar prior to this point. He is very much on my radar now. This is precisely what a good cover should be. Walker takes the song and turns it on its head. Nirvana's fairly straightforward rock has been re imagined as a strange hybrid of Queen and the Scissor Sisters. The result is so full of camp '70s energy that it's impossible not to love.
3) Come As You Are - Midnight Juggernauts
I've been a fan of Midnight Juggernauts' Bowie-esque space age electro for a few years now. Come As You Are seems like the perfect Nevermind track for them to have chosen. It falls happily within their wheelhouse, and as a result sounds like it was always theirs. I will note that at this point I'm starting to miss Cobain's vocals. Kurt may not have been the most gifted of singers, but there's an emotion in his delivery that has thus far been lacking in these covers.
4) Breed - Titus Andronicus
Another act I'd not heard of prior to this album. Which shouldn't bve seen as a complaint, I'm never opposed to being introduced to new things. Whilst they haven't taken the song apart and rebuilt it from scratch like the last two covers there's an energy here that is all their own. The paranoia of the original has been replaced with a desert rock vibe. All without any reduction in pace or screaming.
5) Lithium - The Vaselines
The Vaselines, like Meat Puppets, had their songs covered by Nirvana. So once again it seems to be a case of repaying the favour. Unlike Meat Puppets however this favour has been repayed in full. This stripped down quiet contemplation is a departure from the aggression of the original, and what's more it takes a left turn through creepy territory when they turn Cobain's despondent rage into an echoing round.
6) Polly - Amanda Palmer
Frequent readers of this little blog will know Amanda Palmer is an artist I have a lot of time and respect for. In fact she's responsible for me discovering this album in the first place. It should also be made clear that I think Nirvana's Polly is an absolutely incredible piece of songwriting. So an artist I like covering a song I like should be a mortal lock right? The problem is that it leaves a lot of room for disappointment. Luckily Amanda doesn't disappoint. She manages to immerse herself in the unsettling creepiness of the original, and is the first artist here to try and give the song an emotional reading. Nicely done.
7) Territorial Pissings - Surfer Blood
Surfer Blood's Astro Coast was one of my favourite albums of last year. As a result theirs was one of the names I was excited to find on this tracklist. Unfortunately I can only really rate their cover as competent. It's a fairly faithful rendition, but not imaginative. They clearly enjoy playing it, but don't bother to play with it. Even the screaming sounds more like emulation than emotion.
8) Drain You - Foxy Shazam
I actually saw Foxy Shazam earlier this year supporting The Gaslight Anthem in Sydney. If you get the chance to see these guys live do not pass it up. Their cover (which may have been recorded live, and may just have had crowd noise added) defies description. All I can tell you is that it's really good.
9) Lounge Act - Jessica Lea Mayfield
The 'gender swap' is one of my favourite tricks when it comes to covers. I also like the 'genre switch' and the 'tempo change'. This one ticks all of those boxes, and as a result it's interesting. I don't really think it goes far enough though. Having said that the outro solo is marvelous.
10) Stay Away - Charles Bradley & The Menahan Street Band
From the very first second when that funky bassline kicks in, you know this is going to be something else. Then that voice... It took us ten tracks, but finally we have a cover so inventive that I could hear it half a dozen times before I realise it's a cover. Absolute genius!
11) On A Plain - Telekinesis
This is a very straight reading, which doesn't add anything to the original. Once again it's flat and flavourless, although after the delights of the last track it may just be losing by comparison.
12) Something In The Way - JEFF The Brotherhood
Despite almost completely ignoring the fragility of the original there's something about this cover that makes it not a complete loss. They don't really change much, but there's something about the way it slowly builds towards the end. I don't hate it, but I'm not really sure beyond that.
13) Endless Nameless - EMA
This was the hidden track on Nevermind. Unavailable on the Australian release of the album, although it was released on the b-side of the Come As You Are single. A difficult thing to cover as it was essentially just a noisy jam that spun out of an aborted take on Lithium. It's the one track on Nevermind that I'm not really familiar with at all. As a result it's hard for me to judge this cover. To its credit though, it does sound like a noisy jam.
As with all tribute albums this one is a bit of a mixed bag. There's certainly enough good though, and when you consider that the whole thing is free to download from SPIN's facebook page, you'd be crazy not to.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Kitty, Daisy & Lewis - Smoking In Heaven
Family bands are nothing new; The Carter Family, The Allman Bros., Kings Of Leon. The idea of making music with your family has many precedents in modern music. So on that score Kitty, Daisy & Lewis (Durham) from London bring nothing new to the table.
Recording on vintage equipment using antique microphones and even pressing your own vinyl has also become an established throwback i8n our modern digital times. Just ask Jack White and his decidedly retro Third Man empire. So on that score Kitty, Daisy & Lewis bring nothing new to the table.
Given that on two of their most marketable quirks K, D & L are treading such well worn territory it should also come as no surprise that their music brings nothing new to the table. The thirteen tracks presented on Smoking In Heaven are full of such familiar R&B, blues, swing, and jazz that they could easily have been recorded when Lewis' collection of studio equipment was all fresh.
The thing is that despite nothing new being brought to the table, the Durham siblings haven't come to the dinner party empty handed. The familiarity of the music, the predictability of the lyrics, and even the old fashioned recording techniques have given the album a comfortable warmth.
They're not afraid to settle into a good old fashioned blues jam either. A couple of the tracks here top out the seven minute mark, and despite the fact that they don't really go anywhere with them you can't help but feel the album would be diminished were they edited down or faded out.
In the end I liked Smoking In Heaven. It brought a little warmth into a cold winter week. I just don't feel like I've been listening to a new album, despite it being a 2011 release. It's an album I'm glad to have, and I will listen to again, but I'm looking forward to getting back to new music.
Recording on vintage equipment using antique microphones and even pressing your own vinyl has also become an established throwback i8n our modern digital times. Just ask Jack White and his decidedly retro Third Man empire. So on that score Kitty, Daisy & Lewis bring nothing new to the table.
Given that on two of their most marketable quirks K, D & L are treading such well worn territory it should also come as no surprise that their music brings nothing new to the table. The thirteen tracks presented on Smoking In Heaven are full of such familiar R&B, blues, swing, and jazz that they could easily have been recorded when Lewis' collection of studio equipment was all fresh.
The thing is that despite nothing new being brought to the table, the Durham siblings haven't come to the dinner party empty handed. The familiarity of the music, the predictability of the lyrics, and even the old fashioned recording techniques have given the album a comfortable warmth.
They're not afraid to settle into a good old fashioned blues jam either. A couple of the tracks here top out the seven minute mark, and despite the fact that they don't really go anywhere with them you can't help but feel the album would be diminished were they edited down or faded out.
In the end I liked Smoking In Heaven. It brought a little warmth into a cold winter week. I just don't feel like I've been listening to a new album, despite it being a 2011 release. It's an album I'm glad to have, and I will listen to again, but I'm looking forward to getting back to new music.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Grates - Secret Rituals
The Grates are one of Australia's best alternative pop acts. Their take on the power trio has been successfully grinding out pop gems since the early 2000s. Secret Rituals is their third album, and the first since founding member Alana Skyring departed.
The departure of a founding member can easily shake a band up, especially when it means that a third of your members have gone. I also think that the contribution of drummers to music is frequently underappreciated. Perhaps I took That Thing You Do too seriously (if you haven't seen it, it's well worth a watch) but I think a good drummer can elevate an otherwise average group. I suspect that we won't see the full impact of Alana's departure until The Grates follow this album up, as I suspect most of it was written (and maybe even recorded) prior to the parting of ways.
Secret Rituals is not a major departure by any stretch of the imagination. These 11 songs sound like The Grates in almost every way, and that's no bad thing. What The Grates have always had going for them was the sense that making music was a huge pile of fun. Patience never seems to have lost that youthful enthusiasm for singing that gave their early work so much energy.
The other thing these songs have going for them is that they all sound like classic girl group music of the '60s. There's an abundance of 'ooh aah's and the like. Not that the music sounds dated, just familiar. Like buying a brand new pair of shoes and having them fit like a favourite worn in pair. The major departure from the retro feel of the songwriting is Like You Could Have It All. A song that sounds a lot like '90s Britpop group Elastica. Again, this isn't a bad thing. I really liked Elastica.
The Grates two previous albums have both been nominated for Triple J's J Award for the best Australian album of the year. Neither album won. I don't think Secret Rituals is the album that's going to get them over the line. It's fun, and familiar, but it doesn't really connect emotionally enough to really lodge in the mind.
The departure of a founding member can easily shake a band up, especially when it means that a third of your members have gone. I also think that the contribution of drummers to music is frequently underappreciated. Perhaps I took That Thing You Do too seriously (if you haven't seen it, it's well worth a watch) but I think a good drummer can elevate an otherwise average group. I suspect that we won't see the full impact of Alana's departure until The Grates follow this album up, as I suspect most of it was written (and maybe even recorded) prior to the parting of ways.
Secret Rituals is not a major departure by any stretch of the imagination. These 11 songs sound like The Grates in almost every way, and that's no bad thing. What The Grates have always had going for them was the sense that making music was a huge pile of fun. Patience never seems to have lost that youthful enthusiasm for singing that gave their early work so much energy.
The other thing these songs have going for them is that they all sound like classic girl group music of the '60s. There's an abundance of 'ooh aah's and the like. Not that the music sounds dated, just familiar. Like buying a brand new pair of shoes and having them fit like a favourite worn in pair. The major departure from the retro feel of the songwriting is Like You Could Have It All. A song that sounds a lot like '90s Britpop group Elastica. Again, this isn't a bad thing. I really liked Elastica.
The Grates two previous albums have both been nominated for Triple J's J Award for the best Australian album of the year. Neither album won. I don't think Secret Rituals is the album that's going to get them over the line. It's fun, and familiar, but it doesn't really connect emotionally enough to really lodge in the mind.
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