Album Review - Mark Ronson - Version

I have decided that I might as well try a number of forms of writing for this sodding Blog Challenge, so today I have decided to review an album.

Despite producing a plethora of well known acts, Mark Ronson came to fame in 2003 with his debut album Here Comes The Fuzz, with the popular hit Ooo Wee. It was a funky R&B rock and roll sort of rap album, which sampled many tracks and vocalists. However, Ronson’s Follow up four years later, ‘Version’, is an album of covers of a wide range of artists, from The Supremes to Kasabian but again has a variety of guest vocalists and instrumental interludes, this time generally band front men and singer song writers as opposed to rappers. The whole thing is more styalized than Here Comes The Fuzz, with a kind of Motown sound, for want of a better word, with extensive use of brass, big beat drums and jazz organ.

The album kicks off with a pacy ska style instrumental of one of my favourite Coldplay tracks, God Put a Smile Upon Your Face. Coldplay always sound a bit wet, which is hardly an original observation, but its true. Ronson Fixes this, by making it bouncy and pretty high tempo, but not hugely original. That sets the pace of the album; fun, groovy, novel, competent but not particularly groundbreaking.

The Lead Single is the more emotional version of Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before mixed with a teeny bit of You Keep Me Hanging on. Phew. It works very well indeed, so much so I imagine most won’t even know it is a cut and shut of other peoples’ songs, and it doesn’t matter anyway as it sounds better than both of them. It also achieves the rare feet (for a cover version) of getting popular radio airplay, which ensures the album’s success. Lilly Alan is used to great effect to achieve the considerably easier task of making a bad song better (The Kaiser Chief’s Oh My God); it isn’t even particularly annoying here, with the strength of Lilly’s voice making the crap lyrics sound almost as if they mean something. They don’t, she still rhymes ‘name tag on it’ with ‘plate tectonic’, but I do like her voice a lot.

What other highlights are there? The track which surprised me most was Apply Some Pressure. I am not a fan of Maximo Park – they are one of those bands which seem to have perpetuated into being popular, not due to their music, or even image. There are always just a few bands which people are ‘allowed to like’. At the moment it includes: Bloc Party, The Shins, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire – you know what I mean. I have nothing against these bands, but I often think people say they like them because it is some sort of ‘right answer’, drawing a blank if you will. I also think people just say they like them without actually being familiar with their music or after only hearing one song. I think Maximo Park are one of these bands, and I don’t particularly rate them. I think my issue is Smith’s vocal, which is quite sharp and cutting. However, the vocal remains on Ronson’s version, but a ska beat and brass (mostly) replaces the annoying clangy guitar sound (just how much longer will this be popular), which is its self replaced with some wonderful orchestration, which really lifts the song to a new level. It has that sort of nostalgic discordant sound, created with layered strings harmonising with much sharper sounds. Smith’s punky angular voice really works here, similarly to Ian Brown or Richard Ashcroft. It is kind of like the Madchester / baggy / early 90s electronica stuff, where a collection of sounds somehow come together which really shouldn't. That is how you make something beautiful - completely perfect music is shallow and meaningless, with no point of reference - there has to be elements of inperfection, and Smith's voice provides this. Take note Maximo Park; maybe you should consider ditching the disposible twangy guitar sound for something more layered and gushing. Sadly I can’t be so positive about LSF, which hasn’t been improved much from the half baked Kasabian original, complete with the original vocals. It just goes to prove that you can't polish a turd.

Valerie is good, but is a pretty pointless addition to Version, as it sounds almost exactly like something from an Amy Winehouse album. That shouldn’t surprise you as it features Amy Winehouse, and Ronson produced most of Winehouse's Back to Black album. More like a Live Lounge cover, this. The Only One I Know features Robbie Williams. I don’t know if Ronson went off Robbie half way through recording, because he is almost completely lost in the mix, to almost a frustrating extent. I have sometimes thought that the charm of The Charlatans comes from their distinctive production as opposed to their songwriting, and this rather flat re-working seems to affirm my view.

Ronson has skilfully crafted a fun and credible album, which doesn’t have any gaping weak spots. It has a huge ‘kitch’ novelty, not least with a Britney Sprears cover. The trouble is that people are always spouting out albums like this – Hayseed Dixie, Richard Cheese, Weird Al Yankovic etc. cover the novelty front, and there are plenty of ‘serious’ covers albums which even reach the mainstream such as Joss Stone, plus there are also plenty of pointless cover albums out every week of Radiohead, Beatles and Bob Dylan songs which the fans just lap up. So why does Mark Ronson, a producer who can clearly make decent material of his own, feel the need to make such an album? And just how much longer does he think covers are going to be novel? Well, he knows how to make music sound good, so you just want to turn it up and jump up and down. And isn’t that what music is all about? Putting you in that special place? And besides, it breaks up the tedium of much of the music played on the radio at the moment. People have been making new versions of old songs forever, such as reggae standards which would have the order changed and new lyrics applied. Why stop now?

To be honest Version isn’t half as good an album as Here Comes the Fuzz, but it works. Putting songs by tin pot acts such as the Kaiser Chiefs in makes this album firmly targeted at the UK audience, but even the songs I am not familiar with are still listenable. The trouble is, every time you listen to a song it is hard not to constantly compare it to the original, rather than as a work in its own right. With such lucrative production credits, Ronson, lets be honest, doesn't need to make his own seminal albums. Although he probably could.

6.5/10. Released 16th April 2007