There are many reasons for releasing an album of cover versions - to pay tribute to heroes, to provide a matrix of influences that might illuminate your own work, maybe just to have some fun - but it's hard to discern the rationale for this covers collaboration between Chicago post-rockers Tortoise and alt.country icon Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, which apparently grew out of the latter's desire to cover "Thunder Road". Springsteen's anthem gets a parched desert-rock treatment in the vein of Neil Young or Giant Sand, and, like several of the more well-known songs here, a new melody that doesn't quite do it justice. The desperate desire to find new shapes for familiar songs produces hit-and-miss results: Richard Thompson's "The Calvary Cross" is suitably spartan and tense; and Melanie's "(Some Say) I Got Devil" is rendered so dark and creepy it could be an original Will Oldham mea culpa admission. But the brio of Devo's "That's Pep" is replaced by sinister fuzz-guitar riffing, while Elton John's "Daniel" is all but destroyed by the scratchy industrial loop and Oldham's shaky command of the tune.
DOWNLOAD THIS: '(Some Say) I Got Devil', 'The Calvary Cross'
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies