Radio One: 40 Years of Remakes

Honestly, remakes suck. Correction, remakes that do not pay homage to the original, while representing the current singer aren't worth listening to. Though fitting to the description, "emo," "acoustic" and "bossa" remakes have been prevalent so recently, that I think my ears would bleed if I have to endure one of them in a bookstore again. Too much of the bandwagon, I guess.

So I discovered a collection of old pop songs from the last forty years, one per year - interpreted by today's more popular acts. It's nice that *most* songs on the album were popular enough to catch the mainstream consciousness, and the artists featured try not to duplicate the actual songs.

Who's in there you ask? The Klaxons, McFly, Foo Fighters, Lily Allen, Kaiser Chiefs, Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini, Keane, Mika with Armand Van Helden, The Raconteurs and more. And who did they cover? The Beatles, Sting, The Rolling Stones, The Stylistics, Madonna, Cat Stevens, Britney Spears, and Ace Of Base. There's a lot of great interpretations in there, but if I would pick a handful of songs to force you to take a peek at the album, it would be Careless Whisper (George Michael), No Diggity (Blackstreet), The Power Of Love (Huey Lewis and The News) and You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate).

However with such a varied array of choices, there are some disappointments. My supreme letdown was Your Song (Elton John) as interpreted by The Streets. There was really no Mike SKinner doing that song, worse, he's better of singing, or speaking garage. Mutya Buena did a pass on Tracy Chapman's classic Fast Car, but I personally prefer David Usher's 2004 version better as it offered a more electronic departure from the acoustic original.

Ooh, it's all new (sort of) music all over again here: Radio One