by Susan Boyle
(Sony)
This Rolling Stones remake by the middle-aged runner-up of the UK TV
show Britain’s Got Talent has become something of an accidental
generational marker. If you grew up on the myth of rock as rebel music,
chances are this is a spitting-on-the-ground offense—how dare
this grande dame turn Mick and Keith’s most tender moment into light
operetta? If rock to you is simply part of the entertainment industrial
complex, it’s par for the course—light operetta is what TV talent
shows do to everybody’s canon. Why should the Stones be any different?
Me, I was never a fan of the song to begin with: Every rendition I’m
familiar with, including the first (by the Flying Burrito Brothers, off
1970’s Burrito Deluxe, which beat the Stones’ version by a
year), has basically put me to sleep. And no, that’s not knee-jerk
anticanonism at work: Sticky Fingers has always sounded to me
like the weakest of the Stones’ “classic” 1968–72 quartet; the
others (Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Exile on Main
St.) are all blindingly obvious, 10-out-of-10, A+++, five-star
classics. But I like light operetta less, and by the time Boyle glisses
the final lines of this song, she makes it sound not simply
uninteresting but maudlin.
by Hockey
(Capitol)
The ’90s revival is on. The proof is this smarmy flashback to
that golden moment when modern-rock radio was jam-packed with the
what-me-worry likes of Sublime, Cracker, Cake, Smash Mouth, Sugar Ray,
Barenaked Ladies… you get the anodyne, mildly quirky,
liberal-arts-educated point. Thing is, what the vocalist Hockey’s
center reminds me of most strongly (besides Mark Knopfler, an
observation I thank Will Swygart for) is the curly-haired dink from the
Free Credit Report TV ads. Too bad this song’s bid for earworm
immortality (“Tomorrow’s just a song away”—yes, and monkeys might
fly out of my butt) isn’t quite as catchy as “F-R-E-E, that spells
‘free’/Credit report dot-com, baby.” Not yet, anyway—surely Pizza
Hut and/or Taco Bell will come a-callin’, and boy will we all be sorry
when that happens. Keep Portland weird, dudez.
by P-Money feat. Vince Harder
(3Beat Blue)
Pop-house from New Zealand that’s been making headway in England. It
sounds like something Justin Timberlake left off
FutureSex/LoveSounds because it didn’t feature enough synths.
Instead, there’s a strangled little looping guitar riff that makes the
record all by itself.
Well, to each his own. Maudlin to you is stupendous to hundreds of thousands of Susan Boyle’s fans!!
From what I’ve heard on the rumor mill, Mick says Susan’s cover is better than the Stones’s version, with a haunting quality. While I don’t have a link to that, I definitely agree that her version is very pretty, with the violin the only instrument at the first, winding up to a full orchestration.
I’ve got an order in for my copy as well. The only problem will be to see how long fans are going to wait until she’s got her second album out! Simon probably won’t make the time in-between be too long!
Susan Boyle’s album will be the top selling Xmas Album, she will gain many new fans of ALL AGES!
Her fans WANT her to succeed, & they will see to it that she does!
There is something so pure about Susan, & it’s not just the voice!
In Susan we see ourselves, either the way we are, the way we were, or the way that we’d like to be.
We both admire & cherish her…………..
Well done Susan for reaching our hearts, & I’m sure that very soon you’ll be reaching many more, even those you thought you’d never reach!!
All good wishes
Mike Danata