Guilty Pleasures - Guilty as Charged
Written: Mar 23 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: fine covers of the best cheesy rock songs of the seventies
Cons: several of the songs stay too faithful to the original
The Bottom Line: Go ahead and and check out these covers of cheesy seventies rock. We won't tell anyone how much you enjoy those songs. It'll stay our little secret.
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| DrFaustus's Full Review: Guilty Pleasures by Lazlo Bane |
I've never been one to follow the prevailing trends in music. I was in grade school back when Thriller was first released, and I turned up my nose at Michael Jackson's sound in abject disinterest. Ten Years later, when Nevermind changed the face of rock music I scoffed at what sounded to me like little more than noise, and immersed myself further into They Might Be Giants, whom I had just discovered. Later on in college when jam bands were crowding the radio waves, I just found them self-important and a little but insufferable. I have, in the years since, learned to appreciate much of the music that I scoffed at in my younger days, but it was always long after everyone else had moved on to the next next big thing.
Even looking back at the music from decades gone by, my tastes tend to run counter to the general consensus. Consider the music of the seventies. Led Zeppelin, long regarded as one of the greatest bands of rock music, does little to nothing for me (except for Fool in the Rain - that song is fantastic). For me, when it comes to seventies rock, I go for the schlock. And I apologize for the lame rhyme, but all those cheesy soft rock hits that ruled the airwaves during the Carter administration are sheer bliss. Real rock connoisseurs are supposed to shudder at songs like King Harvest's Dancing in the Moonlight, Looking Glass's Brandy (You're a Fine Girl), Stephen Bishop's On and On, or Edison Lighthouse's Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes), but there's no denying that those bands and there contemporaries knew more about crafting catchy pop hooks than many of today’s songwriters. Yeah, those AM Gold songs may be shallower that one of those plastic kiddy wading pools, but they're more satisfying than any junk food you can bring to the table.
And if there weren't that deep-seeded need that so many of us have to avoid looking uncool, I bet more people would admit to loving cheesy seventies rock hits.
Just look at the members of Lazlo Bane. They're not afraid to admit to sharing my love. If they didn't, they never have recorded their album Guilty Pleasures, chock-full of all cover versions of those old hits that no one wants to admit that they love.
Several of the twenty tracks on Guilty Pleasures cleave tightly to the sound of the originals. Lazo Bane's version of Nothing From Nothing features the same festive horn arrangements and honky-tonk piano stomp that made Billy Preston's original so memorable. The energetic acoustic guitar power pop of Nick Lowe's Cruel to Be Kind and the languid orchestral arrangements of the Eagles' I Can't Tell You Why sound almost exactly the same in their cover versions presented here. These cover songs and several others – Badfinger's Come and Get It, Gilbert O'Sullivan's Alone Again,, Three Dog Night's Mama Told Me Not to Come, Player's Baby Come Back, and Steeler's Wheel's Stuck in the Middle with You amongst them - lead to the rather disappointing feeling that no matter how masterfully these songs are recorded, there's no real reason to listen to this album instead of simply putting one of hundreds of Greatest Hits of the 70's compilations into your stereo.
Fortunately, the band does play around a little bit with many of the album's tracks, throwing some variety into the smooth seventies rock sound. On their version of Supertramp's Take the Long Way Home, they strip away all the instruments save for the piano and harmonica from the first half of the song, slowing things down to highlight the sad, mournful undertones hidden by the original versions amped-up energy. For Maxine Nightingale's Get Right Back, they strip out the lush strings to turn down the disco vibe and turn the song into more of a giddy bubblegum pop ditty. The band also strips down the sound of Mungo Jerry's In the Summertime, holding onto the song's twangy banjo but replacing most of the remaining instrumentation with sweetly harmonic a capella vocalization. The band also take the time to show off the harmonizing chops on 10cc's I'm Not in Love, performing much of the synthesizer sound from the original as lush a capella aah's and ooh's (and mimicking the sound of the The Beatles' Because in the process). 10cc's other big hit, The Things we Do for Love has it's share of tweaks here, too - all the Jeff Lynne-style power-pop arrangements remain, but there's a lush bit of classical piano added in to open and close the song. Captain and Tenille's Love Will Keep Us Together gets one of the most significant makeovers on the album, starting out here as a languid, soulful ballad before unfolding as a stomping, guitar-heavy power pop rocker. And the band bring out their most goofily playful side for Harry Nilsson's Coconut, contorting the vocal lines into strange, cartoonish characters (and even bringing in their own pre-school children to sing a little bit in the intro). For some listeners, this new direction for the song might be a little too irreverently grating, but Coconut has never been a serious song to begin with, and it's the right place for the band to give their sillier side free reign.
And lest Guilty Pleasures drift too far into cheesy rock territory, Lazlo Bane wrap up the album with a faithful rendition of AC/DC's Highway to Hell. The hard rock edge may have been toned down a little to match Lazlo Bane's more relaxed pop sensibilities, but Bon Scott's scratchy vocal howl survives intact.
I am genuinely disappointed that the band didn't take more liberties with the songs, making these songs their own from start to finish instead of just sprinkling a few tweaks in here and there. I still enjoy the album an awful lot, though. Lazlo Bane play with impeccable musicianship indeed, but what really shines through for me is the sense of fun on the album. You don't need to be all that familiar with the original versions of these songs to sense that the band is having a blast playing these songs together. And it's impossible not to get caught up in that excitement.
Great Hits of the Seventies compilations often have most, if not all of these songs, but they always seem to disappoint in some way. They often have poorly mastered tracks, or there are a few irredeemable musical clunkers mixed in with the songs that listeners actually want to hear (Hot Butter, I'm looking in your direction). Guilty Pleasures, though, is nothing but great recordings of genuine seventies schlock rock. Anyone who loves the cheesy rock hits of the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations (which, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, is a lot of us) should look into the album.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
DrFaustus
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I can't help being a big fan of the esoteric and the obscure
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