Albums Out This Week

Various 'BBC Radio 1: Established 1967' (UMTV)

On September 30 1967, Radio 1 begat itself, with Tony Blackburn spinning 'Beefeaters (On Parade)' by Johnny Dankworth (and not The Move's 'Flowers In The Rain', which was in fact the second). Forty yearson, its survival is celebrated by the Kaiser Chiefs covering 'Flowers...' in a mediocre fashion. However, almost everything else about 'Radio 1: Established 1967' is anything but mediocre. Terrible, at times, sure, but at other times ruddy marvellous.

The forty cover versions (one from each year 1967-2007) by today's top pop stars (and Mark Ronson) make for an extraordinary, uplifting, dismaying and unpredictable experience. Amy, Lily, KT, Mutya - the gang's all here (and music's male-dominated, right?). Just perusing the track listing, you think: this I gotta hear. From car-crash dreadful to flashes of inspiration from unlikely sources, it's everything pop should be: daft, delusional and delightful.

The highlights (and lowlights) are many. You're forced to leave preconceptions at the door. Sugababes' take on The Delfonics' 'Betcha By Golly Wow' (1972) is genuinely moving. When have the slick, soulless Babes ever been moving before? Robbie Williams' stab at 'Lola' (1970) by The Kinks strikes the right balance between ironic camp and pub-singer guts. Foo Fighters version of 'Band On The Run' (1974) begins like they mean to avoid their usual leadenness, but then it goes all leaden. You'd pick Kylie cooing 'Love Is The Drug' (1975) as a marriage made in heaven, but somehow its super-sheen takes the lust out of the song.

There are, inevitably, turkeys: The Gossip murder George Michael's 'Careless Whisper' (1984) by failing to grasp its root sincerity, and nobody's desperate to hear James Morrison doing Paul Young or McFly doing The Jam. Stereophonics croaking 'You Sexy Thing'? Calvin Harris as Jamiroquai? Thought not. That's without even acknowledging Natasha Bedingfield's ropey, head-girl rendition of 'Ray Of Light'.

And yet there are triumphs - often ideas which shouldn't gel, do. Franz Ferdinand get Bowie's 'Sound And Vision' (1977) all tinny and one-dimensional and it comes out as an art statement. Maximo Park brazenly turn Timberlake's 'Like I Love You' into heavy breathing indie-chic. Girls Aloud clearly enjoy pretending to be a 'Teenage Dirtbag' (2001). And, painful as it is to admit, Keane's 'Under Pressure' (1981) works, as does Klaxons 'No Diggity' (1996). The Feeling grew up as a covers band, so their 'You're So Vain' (1973) should fly, but somehow tries too hard.

But that's the beauty of one of the most fascinating, joyful-spirited pop collections of the year. To wrongly paraphrase that unsentimental, profound sage Forrest Gump - you never know what you're going to get with each one until you bite into it, pop-pickers.



Babyshambles 'Shotters Nation' (Parlophone)
Like an indie Tim Henman, the perpetually underachieving Doherty is cheered by fans for not being quite as shit as he was last time while the rest of us look on and wonder why anyone still cares about the blank-eyed loser.



Gabrielle 'Always' (UMTV)
Completely sublime return to the bittersweet heartbreakers and four-to-the-floor soul pop that Gabrielle (a national treasure!) does best, with not a duff track amongst them.



Katie Melua 'Pictures' (Dramatico)
From the sublime (Katie's silken vocals) to the ridiculous (writer/producer Mike Batt's sailing-too-close-to-the-wind-of-cringe lyrical howlers) with an album that plays with pastiche too often to allow for comfortable listening (and has a truly disturbing photo of Melua dressed as Charlie Chaplin in the CD booklet).



The Puppini Sisters 'The Rise & Fall Of Ruby Woo' (Universal)
If you like the 1940s so much, why don't you go an live there (after all, Rodney from Only Fools And Horses managed it).



» Reviewed by: Chris and Tim
» Talk on the boards


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