Albums

By Unknown Author

Various Artists, Fire and Skill

The tribute album is a strange beast. Somewhere between a greatest hits and a worst crimes album, more often than not it consists of a bunch of nobodies butchering songs by your favourite artist (See: The Smiths is Dead), all in the name of some belated celebration of the band in question's genius. However, I won't be the first lining up to get shot when the Jam Nazis go around checking Mod Purity, so what shall we make of this album? Basically the Jam were a bit of a laugh, with a couple of great songs (like the Kinks, it is no good pretending that obscure album tracks are their best works, the singles are the songs that count) but most of their stuff was crap. Unless a tribute album contains ten reworkings of Town Called Malice, Going Underground, Eton Rifles and That's Entertainment, a lot of it is going to be inferior versions of Jam filler tracks, and since no record company is that suicidal/inventive we get lamentable versions of Carnation and Start! by Liam Gallagher/Steve Cradock and The Beastie Boys respectively. In fact wonder of wonders, the best track is Gene's cover of Town Called Malice, which fortunately tries nothing clever and arch with the original material, and ends up sounding like Paul Weller singing the original with a slightly more effeminate voice. So Gene provide the best track. Is that entertainment?

pw

Barry White, Staying Power

The big man of soul is back again, and boy does he have plenty of soul to go around. This latest release (fnar fnar) from the love walrus shows him branching out into new territory with a remix of Thank You by none other than the great Puff Daddy, as well as duets with Chaka Khan, and Lisa Stansfield. This is soul stripped down to its basics, guitar, bass, piano and drums accompanied by a fat guy crooning - it's the way soul was meant to be, and Barry White's Staying Power stays firmly in that groove. Don't expect anything you can dance to, even the most upbeat tune is slow, slow, slow and with an average track length of 6 minutes, you'll have plenty of time to do your thang while Barry's baritone seduction weaves its magic. Seriously, you must buy this album. Everyone should own at least one Barry White album, and this is as good as any. It is, undoubtedly, background music, but if you can stop yourself laughing, you'll find that Barry's Staying Power provides a delicious accompaniment to that sweet lovin' you just know he wants us to get on down to. Nice.

HHHII jw

28th Oct 1999