I have a confession
They say it’s strange the way that people will often confess things on their blogs to complete strangers that they’d never confess to their friends. Well, here goes: I’ve bought Paul Weller’s covers album: Studio 150.
Yes, I know I shouldn’t have. And I feel cheap and dirty. But, well…I don’t know…it seemed like the right thing at the time.
Actually, I bought it because I loved his version of Gordon Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain (a dramatic improvement on the original), and Sister Sledge’s Thinking of You (a genuine surprise) - both heard, I should add on Word’s covermount CDs (this month’s is excellent, btw).
So, what do I think? Well the thing is - I think he’s really good when he’s adding a bit of depth and gravel to lightweight songs like those two, and, on the album, ‘Wishing on a star’. That said, he does a version ofn of ‘Close To You’ which is sort of sub, but he completely murders songs which have any subtlety of complexity to them.
Aaron Neville’s Hercules is murdered. Gill Scott Heron’s The Bottle is brutally butchered. And, his version of All Along The Watchtower proves he’s neither a Dylan nor Hendrix).