A rainy night in SO-HO
Written: Feb 25 '01 (Updated May 01 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: two great colorful characters in music working together.
Cons: it's more of a good time for them, than a good album for us
The Bottom Line: Three great songs that are a lot better in their original versions than on the versions appearing here.
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| boffo's Full Review: What a Wonderful World [EP] by Nick Cave/Shane Mac... |
This three song EP is a collaboration between two singers I really admire. Nick Cave is the leader of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds a band that has during it's over 15 years of existence played some truly great music. Starting in the mid eighties with gothic-tindged experimental blues music and always evolving and changing musical style using Cave's poetic and literate lyrics as it's centrepoint.
Shane Macgowan was the leader of another great band during the eighties and early nineties, the drunken irish-folkrock outfit The Pogues a band that mixed their irish folk with punk and rock influences and created wonderful songs.
This collaboration was recorded shortly after Macgowan left The Pogues because of his alcoholism that the other band members could no longer cope with and it was Macgowan's only recording until he formed his solo outfit a few years later jokingly named Shane Macgowan & The Popes.
Ok so now you know the background and can say for sure that I have a lot of love for the music of both these men, so I'd be sure to love this EP as well, right? Well I don't...
Since there are only three songs I'll give you the rundown on each one of them.
What A Wonderful World
This is a cover of the song made famous by Louie Armstrong, it maintains the pace and feel of the original but adds some flute playing along with changed string arrangement, so musically it's a faithfull rendition of the original. That is fine by me since I love the original and wouldn't like to big a reworking. The problem is the vocals. During the verses Cave and Macgowan trade vocal lines before joining forces on the choruses. Neither Cave nor Macgowan are technically brilliant vocalist. Instead their strenhgt lies in writing strong lyrics and singing these with feeling. Their voices don't work that well together though. On the chorus the blend of Cave's monotone bass voice and Macgowan's drunken and raspy singing makes my hairs stand on end and that's not in a good way! The fact that Cave Has a tendency to sing slightly out of tune has never bothered me on his records however on this song it is highly disturbing. They recorded this song to pay tribute to Louis Armstrong wich is very nice of them. That dosen't mean that I have to like the end result.
Fun Trivia Fact:For some reason this song hit the charts in Portugal of all places, charting at number two. Maybe the portugese have a different view on music than I do...
On A Rainy Night In Soho
This is a great Macgowan Song that can be found in it's original version on The Best Of The Pogues. This reflective ballad is one of the better songs Macgowan's ever written. Cave And Macgowan decided to turn the tables on this release however so this is Cave's take on the song. Once again the backing track is pretty similar to the original although the piano part on the original is here played on an acoustic guitar. However it is painfully obvious that this isn't Cave's song. The original take is simply much better and more emotional. Particulary funny is Cave's inabiltity to sing the chorus line:
On a rainy night in Soho
Instead of singing Soho as one word he divides the two syllabels so it sounds like:
On a rainy night night in SO-(slight pause)HO.
This always cracks me up when I listen hear the song. The song is great, check it out, but go for the original Macgowan version instead.
Lucy
This is a Cave song from his 1990 album The Good Son. Cave is Known for being dark and brooding but this is an uncharacteristically sweet, if sad love song. Of course this version has Macgowan singing! I think he fares a bit better than Cave did on Macgowan's song, however the original is still preferable. here as well, the music is only slightly changed. The song is shortened by removing a harmonica part towards the end of the song. However Cave's take win on pure emotion you simply hear that this is as little Macgowans song as Soho was Cave's.
I won't say that this EP should never have been recorded I'm sure that it allowed two old friends to spend a little time together. However I think more time was spent on having fun than on recording great music. I warmly recommend anyone to check out these two songwriter's music but you should steer clear from this EP unless you're a huge fan of both. Since I am I ocasionally listen to it and it leaves me smiling, that dosen't mean that I think it any good, though.
Recommended:
No
Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends
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Epinions.com ID:
boffo
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Member: Peter Hjalmarsson
Location: Sweden
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 7 members
About Me:
How come I only get MH-ratings in categories where I am the only reviewer?
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