Radio 1 Established 1967 - Various Artists > Reviews > More Bad than Good

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Average
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Unmemorable
Value for Money	Very Poor

Advantages:	Not many
Disadvantages:	Too many

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

After reading the paper the other week I was intrigued to read that various so called superstars had done some cover versions of famous hits. Not usually my cup of tea I might add, but since my son's girlfriend had bought him a copy I thought I give it a listen. There are 40 tracks on the two CD compilation, but quality wise I quite comfortably reduced that to a few tracks which caught my ear. Others amused slightly and some did not seriously get passed the first few bars.

Astonishingly to me it was the artists whom I had already written off that surprised me most. The like's of Paolo Nutini totally shocked me since his version of the Madness song It must be Love turns out to be one of the better renditions in the collection. I had thought that since quite a few of the featured artists were not my kind of thing I was not going to be totally subjective about the album, but again I was pleasantly surprised.

The album is published by EMI and some of the cover versions are from songs that shall we say take me back a few decades. Many of the songs on the album are instantly recognisable by name and artist, but some of the actual covers I found drifted too far from the original and were barely listenable.

On the first CD we have a track listing as such :

1. Kaiser Chiefs covering The Move's Flowers in the Rain, having listened too and liking some of the Chiefs material I really expected a bit more and this was one of the tracks I thought drifted too far.

2. The Fratellis effort at Jimi Hendrix All along the Watchtower was probably best described as adequate and moved me in no particular direction.

3. Amy Winehouse screeched her way through Jonny Nash's Cupid and once again caused me to wonder what all the fuss is about her, I don't find her music very interesting and screech seems to be an appropriate adjective in describing her should destroying voice.

4. Not being a strong Robbie Williams follower I was quite surprised at his rendition of The Kinks Lola. Why surprised well it was perhaps the best track on either of the CD's or at least in the top three. I did at one point actually get to thinking it might be better than the original, but no I was simply just getting carried away.

5. The Streets version of Elton's Your Song only got a few bars in before I had had enough, there was no singing as such just their usual boring twang rabbitting on.

6. Now the Sugababes were up with their rendition of THE Stylistics Betcha by Golly, WOW, and very nice it was too. Not exactly stirring but comforting that it was a decent effort.

7. One of my favourite groups next with The feeling performing their cover of Your so Vain by Carly Simon. Talk about disappointing, from the first first not their was practically no resemblance at all, assuming you could make out the somewhat mumbled lyrics. Possibly a contender for worst effort.

8. Foo Fighters now with the Wings song Band on the Run, I do not know too much about the Fighters but suffice to say they were easily up there with Robbie after a superb performance.

9. Super Kylie was to follow with Roxy's Music's Love is the drug, although perhaps not up to her usual standard she again was climbing up my rankings with a very admirable show.

10. Unfortunately this was a high followed by a low as KT Tunstall murdered Brian Ferry's Lets Stick Together with another really poor effort.

11. Franz Ferdinand were once again only adequate with Bowie's Sound and Vision and not at lot more can be said about them.

12. The Raconteurs were only listened too for a few bars and the next track skipped too.

13. Mika VS Armand van Holden next performed The Police's Can't Stand Losing You which did have me thinking, Mika didn't seem to take it to seriously as one might expect, so why should I.
14. Kasabian with The Special Too much to Young failed to move me too much, and at this point I was starting to think that my son's girlfriend's outlay had been a total waste of money.

15. Under Pressure with Bowie and Queen has always been a favourite of mine so when another favourite Keane were up next with their effort of this song I was ready and preying. Superb simply superb and shoots straight to the number one slot with ease.

16. The boring and predictably McFly with The Jam's Town called malice were exactly that predicable and boring.

17. The highly acclaimed and over-rated James Morrison with Come back and Stay by Paul Young , had me definitely getting up and going.

18. Gossip were another I hadn't heard of and their upbeat version of George Michael's Careless whisper was most refreshing and enjoyable.

19. The Pigeon Detectives of whom I know absolutely nothing were now going to mimic Hey Lewis and the News and The Power of Love. Another very good interpretation which had my feet tapping.

20. Don't get me Wrong with Chrissie Hind and The Pretenders is another old favourite that was totally guffed up by the illustrious Ms Allen ( Lily )

I was now in a situation where the decision to listen too the second CD was becoming critical, surely this would have to be better than the dismal failure of the first CD.

1. Hot Chocolate you Sexy thing performed by The Sterophonics simply continued the tired theme which was now becoming evident a boring lifeless effort which again was not listened too all the way through.

2. Mutya Buena whoever he/she may be made a brave effort on the Tracy Chapman hit Fast cars and it looked as though things might be on the up.

3. The third track on this CD had me at a loss since I've never even heard of the original The Cure Lullaby, well at least the title didn't ring a bell. And voila upon listening I was none the wiser so no comparison can be made here. The Editors were the covering band.

4. Razorlight with Sting's Englishman in New York was performed well and certainly entertained.

5. Groove Armada had me skipping tracks again with their poor effort of Madonna's Crazy for You.

6. Paolo Nutini with Madness's It must be love, this is easily for me the best track on the compilation and that isn't easy to say being that I neither like of normally listen to Mr Nutini, I find him to be a boring self centred child, but in this case at least one with a bit of talent. A truly great rendition and one which I thoroughly enjoyed.

7. The Kooks version of Ace the Base song All that she Want's continued the upward trend and I was starting to think the money hadn't been wasted.

With the exception of Girls Aloud version of Wheatus Teenage Dirtbag I was now demoralised and bored, and after a few short listens to the remaining tracks concluded the two CD compilation to be a waste of money. There were as I have mentioned some good and indeed some great efforts in the compilation, but unfortunately the garbage that fills in the blanks well outweighs the good. This compilation will set you back around £11.99 but save this and maybe download the decent tracks from some reputable company don't waste your hard earned on this rubbish.