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Covered: A Revolution in Sound: Warner Bros. Records [12 Tracks]
Covered: A Revolution in Sound: Warner Bros. Records [12 Tracks]

Covered: A Revolution in Sound: Warner Bros. Records [12 Tracks] in Bloomington, MN

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Part of
Warner Brothers
' ongoing celebration of their 50th Anniversary,
Covered: A Revolution in Sound
has current
Warner
recording artists covering songs from classic
recordings artists -- i.e., following the rubric set by
Rubaiyat
, the 1990 compilation that had current
Elektra
artists covering classic
artists.
was always a weirder label, always reflecting its independence, while
always was a bigger label -- the quirkiest and strangest of the majors, particularly during their glory days of the '60s and '70s, but still a major label with no overruling identity, a situation that is especially true in 2009, where the
-affiliated labels boast a roster heavy with active rock bands and anonymous singer/songwriters. Both camps are represented here on
Covered
, but the producers have gone out of their way to showcase
's more interesting acts, some of which actually do some interesting work: the
Black Keys
twist
Captain Beefheart
into their own image, not necessarily an easy thing to do, the
Flaming Lips
turn
Madonna
's
"Borderline"
inside out, while
Mastodon
come close to giving
ZZ Top
"Just Got Paid"
a clenched revamp, perhaps ratcheting up the grind just a notch too tight. While
Misty Higgins
does her best to strip the sensuality away from
Roxy Music
"More Than This,"
turning it into a breathy triple-A ballad that makes
10,000 Maniacs
' version seem muscular, and
the Used
Talking Heads
' into a garish car wreck, the rest of
finds artists treating the originals as sacred texts. In the case of
Avenged Sevenfold
"Paranoid"
and
Disturbed
"Midlife Crisis,"
the fidelity is embarrassing; in the case of
Michelle Branch
"A Case of You,"
it's just bland.
James Otto
fares a bit better with
"Into the Mystic,"
giving it a little bit of heartland soul, but
Against Me!
should have known better than to replicate
the Replacements
' one-take wonder
"Here Comes a Regular."
And that just leaves the most bewildering track here,
Adam Sandler
's mimicking of
Neil Young
"Like a Hurricane."
Sandler
plays it straight, never cracking a joke, and it's not just unintentionally funny, it's just fascinatingly odd -- and in that oddness, it has a leg up on much of the rest of
, which is faithful and forgettable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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