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| From | Gene Good <javagene@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: Ray Davies duets album |
| Date | Sun, 16 Jan 2011 19:49:13 +0000 |
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Mojo gave it 1 star and calling it a "travesty". Was looking forward to it as well.
Meanwhile, what happened to the supposed Kinks reunion I read about ?
> Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2011 12:56:39 -0500
> From: bholmes_fm@msn.com
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Ray Davies duets album
>
> I'm a Kinks fan *and* a tribute fan and was looking forward to this
> album, but this UK review is pretty brutal - ouch! Hopefully the truth
> lies in the middle.
>
> ---
>
> Following on from 2009’s The Kinks Choral Collection, on which Ray
> Davies rearranged his back catalogue with the Crouch End Festival
> Chorus, See My Friends finds him sifting through his songbook once
> again, only this time he’s brought Bon Jovi along.
>
> Yes, it’s a duets album, of the type that veteran artists produce when
> they’ve nothing left to prove. Such ventures seldom serve much point
> beyond flattering the star with attention from fellow musicians, who in
> turn are honoured by association. Plus they sell well.
>
> Ray Davies doesn’t need to record a soporific version of Tired of
> Waiting with Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody, any more than Bruce
> Springsteen needs to trample the bittersweet Better Things with his
> wholly unsuitable bombast. But both were doubtless thrilled by the
> opportunity to record with Davies. And that’s just it: these all-star
> gatherings are more fun for the artists than they are for the listener.
>
> Try as one might, it’s impossible to resist comparing these duets
> against the hallowed originals, especially when their arrangements
> barely differ. The likes of This is Where I Belong with Frank Black
> (billed as Black Francis) and Long Way From Home with Lucinda Williams
> are pleasant recordings of wonderful songs, but what is their point?
> Jackson Browne may be in simpatico with Davies’ unweathered voice on
> Waterloo Sunset, but will anyone ever reach for this version over the
> magical original? Will they even remember it exists?
>
> For better or downright ghastly, the most memorable tracks are those on
> which the guests imprint themselves. The undoubted highlights are
> Mumford & Sons’ folk-gospel medley, Days / This Time Tomorrow, its
> arrangement madly ambitious compared with its companions, and Spoon’s
> shoegazing treatment of the proto-psychedelic title-track. The late Alex
> Chilton sounds genuinely enthused on ‘Til the End of the Day, a song his
> old band Big Star covered during the Third/Sister Lovers sessions.
> Recorded in 2009, it was the spur for these sessions.
>
> But the tenderness and wit of Davies’ songs and singing is smothered by
> his blunter collaborators. However sincere, Springsteen’s bellowing
> simply doesn’t work. Paloma Faith’s Lola is a wretched, over-sung X
> Factor throwaway. Metallica’s drilling of You Really Got Me is bar-band
> bad. And Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora’s overwrought stadium-rock
> assault on Celluloid Heroes is a laughable abomination.
>
> It’s testament to Davies’ legacy that he emerges from this inessential
> project with his dignity intact.
>
>
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