 The
idea of tribute has never pleased me. I really enjoy a cover on an album
among other new stuff from a band (here I’m thinking of the Ramones
who brought fans to many obscure hits from the 60’s), but such
a concentration of covers on a same album is a bit too much for me (like
'Acid Eaters' LP from the same Ramones). Nevertheless, I made an exception
because PIL was at stake there and, to be honest, because of Irmin Schmidt
(CAN) contributing to the effort with a cover of one of my favourite
PIL track's :'Banging the Door.'
The other
thing is that, with the exception of Pete Jones and The Damage Manual
(both including ex-PIL members), I never heard of the other bands before,
so that would be a good way to extend my poor knowledge of the bands
of today.
The Irmin Schmidt & Kumo’s cover of “Banging the Door”
is absolutely brilliant. They keep the basics (background sound, etc)
and add the CAN touch and other noises. The lyrics are reduced to the
very minimum but essential. The vocals have been turned into a phone
conversation : “Hullo?” What do you want ? You’re
irritating !” this is not a real home, you’re not dead yet,
you’re wasting”, all right, stop this! keep banging the door
!” – that’s perhaps how CAN should have sounded
at the time they wanted John Lydon to join the band ??
Then, you have more conventional
covers, but sincerely done : The Damage Manual ('Memories'), Pete Jones
('Blue Water') , Omegaman vs. Pigface ('Religion'), October File ('Under
the House'). I would like to make a special mention to You Shriek, who
turn 'Ease' into an electro-danceable tune (not that easy).
The other covers do not bring
anything new or refreshing. Sadly, the worst of that compilation is,
the cover of 'Public Image' (the original is so perfect !). Hanin Elias
has made it as bad as possible : it’s ugly and out of scope. It
is not even funny nor parody, only grotesque.
One can also regret the choice
of the covers. Covers of obscure tracks are missing, such as 'Tie me
to the Length of That', 'Fodderstompf' and, why not, 'The CowBoy Song'
or 'Home is Where the Heart is' !! - for instance, Pete Jones took the
strange ‘Blue Water’ and make it more listenable than the
original version… That’s what I would expect from a tribute
(or a cover in general)… A way to prove how important PIL is for
you, should also have been to choose odd tracks and rebuild them into
something stronger, more finished, like an updated version …
'Tribute' is certainly not
here to last and most presumably will be forgotten within the next few
years. However, this is the first attempt to bring the attention to
PIL made by various bands and hopefully, many young listeners will go
to the original after having listen to these tracks. And everything
which leads to PIL is certainly not a bad thing. |