Before you get your coat though, Tom Middleton does have some exceedingly good tunes here. In anyone else’s hands this could be an exercise in chortle-by-numbers and quite frankly an unlistenable endless teenage joke. But, as he admits himself, the taste is of the ‘Marmite’ variety here; you’ll either love it or hate it. No half measures.
After the shock success of first volume Cosmosonica here come the second installment. The art of the cover version is a much-maligned genre, which some of these tracks go some way of reconciling. For a nascent band this can be the opportunity to inject a little humour into their otherwise bleak angst-fests, gain some credibility props, shine new emotional depths on the original’s intentions or just dick about.
The temptation for all-stars to succumb to the power of the cover version is strong here. Some well-known, some global, some clearly seemed like a good idea at the time… So where else can you get a steel drum version of Gary Numan that turns this bleak track of alienation into a Caribbean party? Or where Missy Elliot‘s Get Ur Freak on gets a Tarantino Surf Rock makeover. Even glum-mungers Radiohead get High and Dry reworked (albeit in tasteful fashion by the ‘jazz Hobbit’ Jamie Cullum. Shame, when there’s an album’s worth on the reggae-tastic album of covers Radiodread. Can’t have it all eh?
Split over two discs with the theme of �party’ on disc 1 and disc 2 featuring more subtle gems. There seems to be a predominantly country-ish slant towards things as Mamma Mia, I Don’t Feel Like Dancing and even Prince‘s Alphabet Street (given a bluegrass makeover) are dripping with twang and torch instead of disco moves.
There are few household names here, and a few cult curios gathered together under one double album roof: Sugababes doing the Arctic Monkeys (shame it’s not Sir Tom Jones – tee hee) Teen Spirit covered in swing style by crooner Paul Anka treads and Ian Brown honking his way through Michael Jackson‘s Thriller tread a shaky line between fool and genius.
Even sister Janet Jackson‘s What Have You Done For Me Lately and the easy-listening classic Fly Me To The Moon get given an almighty soul-pasting with some seriously great reworkings. There are even some classy bits of exotica: the Indian version of Rock The Casbah, the orchestral take on Kasabian to name but two.
In all it’s 42, yes! 42! cuts of prime cover version. There’s barely a duff track amongst ’em. But of course, if you can’t stand the stuff leave well alone. So for those sad cases who raise a guilty pleasure-type smile when hearing a pop classic re-made and re-modelled into a new unfamiliar shapes. So, what does that make me?…Doh!
Various Artists MP3s or CDs
Various Artists on Spotify
