Cons: Sting and Miss Saigon make for odd bedfellows.
The Bottom Line: An uneven collection that includes some pleasant surprises and a couple true gems. For George fanatics and fans Linda Ronstadt's "What's New" and Natalie Cole's "Unforgettable...with Love."
cowboydj's Full Review: Songs From the Last Century by George Michael
There are a lot of musicians I like, some that I admire, a select few I adore, but only one that can call me a "fan": Debbie Gibson.
Just kidding. If George Michael sang the yellow pages in Swiss-German accompanied by bagpipes, tree frogs, and a skill saw, I'd buy it. I am an unashamed devotee of his music and have been since the very first time I heard "Like a Baby" from Wham's US break-though album "Make It Big." One listen and I knew this guy was a major talent; the voice, the presence, the really cool clothes, but...
No one believed me.
Unfortunately, that same album also contained the cloying, insidious chart monster "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go," a song notable for its total absence from rock critics' lists of "Greatest Artistic Achievements of the Century," and the source of endless scorn for my G.M. fetish on the part of my musician friends. Five years of barbs and cruelty passed before George's first solo album "Faith" won a butt-load of Grammys, forcing my friends, and most music critics, to eat crow for a year, 'cause it was so damn brilliant. I was in pig heaven.
George continues to surprise on his latest release, a decidedly downbeat, big-band vocal take on "Songs from the Last Century." At first glance the eclectic mix of tunes struck me as odd, if not downright bizarre. The album's lead track, the incredibly cliched standard "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" is followed immediately by the Police's moody ode-to-a- prostitute "Roxanne;" a less likely combination might be "Some Enchanted Evening" b/w "Do it in the Butt" featuring the 'hip' vocal stylings of Ozzy Osborne and the John Tesh Singers.
"Good god," I shouted suddenly, startling an unsuspecting clerk at Tower Records, "she's completely flipped her cookies!" My eyes welled up with tears; it just had to be awful...it had to be!
Say what you like about this record, the fact that George manages to pull some of these songs off without sending the listener into anaphylactic shock is towering testimony to his copious talents. Even more shocking, a number of these performances are flat-out gorgeous.
Is it a great record? No; but it is a delightful confection in the vein of retro-recordings like Linda Rondstadt-Nelson Riddle's sublime "What's New" and Natalie Cole's glorious tribute to her father, "Unforgettable, with Love..." George's sensuous, arrestingly beautiful cover of "Brother..." may be the most impressive track, considering this is one of the dumbest songs ever written. The afore-mentioned "Roxanne" is an interesting experiment, but I find the combination of muted horns and prostitution a bit too disconcerting, and found myself unable to avoid imagining it was the theme-song to a remake of "Shaft" starring Tipper Gore and a really big can of black shoe polish.
Other highlights include a lovely, lulaby-like take on Roberta Flack's classic "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face;" an inspired bossa-nova-inflected version of "Miss Sarajevo;" a limpid, intimate reading of Johnny Mercer's timeless "I Remember You" accompanied solely by harp; and my personal favorite, George's breathless cover of the Johnny Mathis hit
"Wild is the Wind," a song that has never received the attention it deserves.
This is clearly a labor of love for George, as he himself remarks briefly in the liner notes, and really shouldn't come as a total surprise to his fans, considering he has indulged his penchant for vocal music on a number of occasions; most notably his flawless recording of Jobim's bossa nova classic "Defisanado" for the AIDS fundraising project "Red, Hot & Blue" and the intoxicatingly beautiful "Jesus to a Child" from his last solo album, "Older."
George's performances occasionally fall short stylistically, there is a slight quality of "sameness" from song to song, and the juxtaposition of standards, Sting, and Miss Sarajevo remains jarring even after a few listens. Overall, however, I found the album pleasurable listening, high points over-shadowing a few less-inspired moments. In other words...
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