2006's Wonder Producer stumbles with a lacklustre cover version concept.
Written: May 11 '07 (Updated May 11 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Some superb vocal performances.
Cons: Too. Many. Horns.
The Bottom Line: This is an interesting curio and would have made a splendid 5 song EP, but as a full album it is samey, dull and largely pointless.
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| kookytree's Full Review: Version - Mark Ronson |
Chances are you've already heard a Mark Ronson song without knowing it. The New York based DJ turned producer had a hit in 2003 with Ooh Wee, or as it is better known, Oooooooooooooooooh Weeeeeeeeeeeeee, and has been particularly prolific of late, working on the recent albums of Christina Aguilera and Robbie Williams. He can also take more than a little credit for the success of Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, producing their breakthrough hits Smile and Rehab as well as much of their albums.
Version is Ronson's second album in his own name and bears the fruits of his glittering contacts book, with Allen, Winehouse and Williams all guesting. Whilst his first, Here Comes The Fuzz, was hip-hop centric and commercially unsuccessful, Version is a more eccentric and ambitious proposition: retro soul covers of (mostly) British guitar music. So there is a Stax-tastic Winehouse rendition of the Zutons' Valerie, a pounding, strings laden reimagining of The Smiths Stop If You Think You've Heard This One Before, and a languid Lily Allen rework of the Kaiser Chief's Oh My God.
Let's cut to the chase. There are two fantastic songs here- Stop Me and Valerie. Stop Me sees little-known Australian Daniel Merriweather carve Morrissey's morose languishing into soul drenched, fire-and-brimstone fervour in a forceful, star making turn. The song's dramatic orchestral backdrop bristles with intensity, and a climactic interpolation of the Supremes Keep Me Hanging On is a nigh-on euphoric flourish.
Valerie is an equally breathtaking makeover, so sprightly and bouncy it makes the Zutons hit seems turgid and grey in comparison. A luscious Amy Winehouse chomps through lovelorn lyrics with windy bluster, reinventing spurned yearning into an affection spiked with indignance. That the female pronouns are kept intact sadly fails to result in the world's first lesbian Motown stomper, but does twist the song into an tale of female kinship almost as unique.
Most audacious is the reinvention of Radiohead's Just into camel walking blaxploitation strut. The refrain "You do it to yourself/And that's why it really hurts" is turned from misanthropic spite to caustic kiss-off in a lissome turn from Alex Greenwald, lead singer of Phantom Planet (most known for OC theme tune California). Leftfield urban-pop singer Kenna (think a male Kelis) wraps his mellifluent tongue around Ryan Adam's Amy, and whilst it packs more of a punch than the diaphanous original, it fails to supersede its delicate power.
A lesser highlight is Lily Allen's sassy take on Oh My God, her crisp, half-rapped cadence augmenting the song's rat-in-a-cage ennui with urbane knowing. Trumpets and saxophones are a pleasant touch, but exactly the point of the song is unclear; it all feels a bit meta and insubstantial.
Apply Some Pressure is even more aimless. Maximo Park's Paul Smith covers his own song (barely two years old), and whilst the production is snappy and taut, the original's adolescent fervour is met with milky assertion in a half hearted vocal reading. LSF similarly sees Kasabian covering themselves in a pointless rendition that tars the song's vociferant Stone Roses cool with fussy production, rendering the track barely above gimmicky remix. And arguably the biggest star on the disc, king of Britpop Robbie Williams, phones in a dismal impersonation of the Charlatans on The Only One I Know, probably the most pointless song on an album full of them.
The two riskiest songs on the disc are also it's most abject failures. Toxic -yes, that Toxic- sees Ronson return somewhat to his hip hop roots, grafting posthumous Ol' Dirty Bastard bars over emphasised beats. However, all the nymphet cheek of Britney's effervescent original is poorly translated into overdone James Brown schtick by male singer Tiggers. It's difficult to see what Ronson set out to achieve with this smug, lethargic tosh.
A rework of the Jam's Pretty Green with M.I.A.-alike Santo Gold is the album's most sonically adventurous cut, tipping a hat to Brazilian baile funk and 1970s reggae pop. It is also something of a mess. Ironically, a stiff edit by a talented producer could salvage some spark from its cutesy bubblegum chant, but here Ronson clearly overindulged himself on his influences.
The same could be said of Version itself. Standouts excepted, it seems more the ultimate exercise in music geek list making than actual music. Whilst the deployment of live instrumentation is a refreshing anomaly in today's synth-happy pop climate, the over reliance on trumpets and saxophone give most songs a samey feel that quickly becomes stale. The rather aimless nature of much of the retreads also result in a very limited shelf life; once you've heard most of these versions once or twice, you never need to hear them again. It's a coffee table album, a dinner party novelty, much better in concept than in reality. And that's not because the songs are executed poorly- most feature excellent vocalisation, masterful instrument playing and sleek arrangement. It is because the very merit of this concept itself is a dubious one, steeped more in inane curiosity value than any sense of relevatory rediscovery.
Download: Stop Me, Valerie, Just, Amy
Recommended:
No
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kookytree
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