Various Artists - DreamBrother: The Songs of Tim& Jeff Buckley

Tue 21st Mar, 2006 in Music Reviews

The best covers are the ones that completely dismantle the original song, salvage the basic melody and reinterpret it. Patti Smith’s radically altered version of Van Morrison’s ‘Gloria’ is possibly the song that she is best known for, and one that defines her style best. The White Stripes’ version of ‘Jolene’ is sung with so much passion that it is hard to believe that they didn’t write it. Debut singles by Nirvana and the Byrds were both covers, before the groups made a foray into original song-writing, and their success with it was based on their ability to alter the songs to show what made them different.

There is a flipside to that coin, however. The worst covers are the ones that are close to identical to the original version. Recently they have been used to appeal to a younger generation of consumers who don’t remember the original. It is songs like these that usually feature on tribute albums, which are usually attempts by record companies to promote their artists and make some quick and easy money. Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim + Jeff Buckley is an attempt to counter this trend, according to its own liner notes. A significant advantage lies in the fact that few can come even close to mimicking the angelic voices of Tim and Jeff Buckley, and as a result, artists must look for other ways to get their points across. Most of the artists performing on this tribute album are little known indie outfits with talent to prove.

The Earlies merge organic electronica with gospel harmonies on Tim Buckley’s ‘I Must Have Been Blind’, while Bitmap’s take on Jeff Buckley’s ‘Dream Brother’ is layered with synthesized beats and heavily processed vocals. King Creosote turns ‘Grace’ into a stripped back Celtic ballad, and ‘Yard of Blonde Girls’ is given the bluegrass treatment by Micah P. Hinson. Other tracks are less interesting. Contributions by the Magic Numbers and Sufjan Stevens are restrained, unimaginative and generally boring. Nevertheless, the good interpretations outweigh the bad ones.

This tribute album fails in what it sets out to do however. The focus of the album is not brought on the songwriters, but instead on the largely undiscovered performers who succeed in taking the music somewhere new. Fortunately, this is a positive thing. Both Tim and Jeff Buckley were famed for their radical reinterpretations of other people’s songs. They would surely approve of the treatment their own songs are given on this album.