Tracklist
Tkay Maidza– | Where Is My Mind? | 2:57 | |
U.S. Girls– | Junkyard | 2:59 | |
Aldous Harding– | Revival | 2:17 | |
The Breeders– | The Dirt Eaters | 3:34 | |
Maria Somerville– | Seabird | 4:36 | |
Tune-Yards– | Cannonball | 3:09 | |
Spencer.– | Genesis | 4:29 | |
Helado Negro– | Futurism | 3:10 | |
Efterklang– | Postal | 4:00 | |
Bing & Ruth*– | Gigantic | 5:26 | |
Future Islands– | The Moon Is Blue | 4:38 | |
Jenny Hval– | Sunbathing | 2:46 | |
Dry Cleaning– | Oblivion | 3:50 | |
Bradford Cox– | Mountain Battles | 6:24 | |
Sohn*– | Song To The Siren | 4:45 | |
Becky And The Birds– | The Wolves (Act I And II) | 4:30 | |
Ex:Re– | Misery Is A Butterfly | 5:08 | |
Big Thief– | Off You | 4:04 |
Versions
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6 versions
Image | , | – | In Your Collection, Wantlist, or Inventory | Version Details | Data Quality | ||||
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![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 18×File, AIFF, Album, 24-bit 96 kHz | 4AD – none | 2021 | 2021 | New Submission | ||||
![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 2×CD, Album | 4AD – 4AD 0358CD | US | 2021 | US — 2021 | New Submission | |||
![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 2×LP | 4AD – 4AD 0385 LP | US | 2021 | US — 2021 | New Submission | |||
![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 2×CD, Album | 4AD – 4AD 0358CD, 4AD – 4AD 0358 CD, 4AD – 4AD0358CD | UK & Europe | 2021 | UK & Europe — 2021 | New Submission | |||
![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 2×LP, Album | 4AD – 4AD 0358 LP | UK & Europe | 2021 | UK & Europe — 2021 | Recently Edited | |||
![]() | Bills & Aches & Blues 2×CD, Album | Beat Records – 4AD0358CDJP, 4AD – 4AD0358CDJP | Japan | 2021 | Japan — 2021 | New Submission |
Reviews
referencing Bills & Aches & Blues (2×LP, Album) 4AD 0358 LP
I approached this collection warily because of the shadow 4AD has become, but had to give it a go as it involved some of my favourite 4AD music. Basically, I agree with crijevo's review on this strange collection of 4AD pieces. Taken from 4AD's catalogue; some are of days’ gone bye bye classics. But, these are ploddingly bad re-interpretations, making you want to pick your nose and leave the room. It doesn't warrant the time to go through each track, as luckily crijevo has already done it, but I will say a few things.
First, in Chris Taylor's defence, I do like his version, of Song to the Siren, his voice is too pure not to like it. Part of me wonders why as there are now many renditions of this song, and many good ones. It is hard now to listen to the song impartially. Taylor brings beauty to the song, keeps it alive . . .
Dry Cleaners. Where I was enjoying DC, this now puts me off the Dry Cleaners’ detached approach to music - aloof, uncaring. At first it seemed sort of witty (with their own material!). But where Grimes is fun (even alive), it makes it readily apparent DC are not (up to it). How long can they uncaringly continue? After a while, the audience will be just as bored as the performers.
Weep!!! The Moon Is Blue and no wonder. For the first few seconds I was beguiled by the aberrational mash of it all. I like the light, tinkling background music, Herring’s voice is heartfelt and full of expression; but the voice doesn’t convince me as working for the song. The dizzy heights of Lorita’s soaring vocals is what makes The Moon Is Blue a triumph. Now that triumph is dragged to a gritty cowboy song. Apart from Taylor's Siren call, for me, this is the best song on the album.
Ex-re is hardly that different from the original, so not bad, but then, what’s the point . . . as for the other covers, I have less time for them. When you pick such strong songs (of course Song to the Siren is a Tim Buckley song, not originally 4AD), you are setting yourself up for a challenge. You don’t have to equal your target, but you have to bring something. To be honest, I can’t see any justifying redemption for collating this album.
You’d think it should be easy, half (?) the work is done, the song is written. However, performing covers, reinterpretations of music, takes a lot of skill, the artist has to have a dominant approach and convey some sense of claiming the song as their own (Grace Jones did it beautifully with many songs). You can’t just proclaim, “Let’s do another Mortal Coil!”. Or, you can, but now they have to clean the mess . . .- Sad to say this, but this whole project that is a celebration of 4AD's 40th anniversary is a wasted opportunity - at least judging from the 99% of cover versions offered on this digital release - and "This Mortal Coil" these ain't! Some rely on the originals delivering their mere pale imitations, others are so carried away with their self-indulgent experimentalism they sound like forgetting what they were doing... In most cases, "Bills & Aches & Blues" is a plastic bag of performances as if coming out of "The X Factor".
A few painful mentions:. Bing And Ruth's piano masturbation that is supposed to be "Gigantic" is deceptively nice chamber music piece but Tori Amos was there first with her creepy version of Slayer's "Raining Blood" many years back... And whatever Bing And Ruth were trying to prove with this, will sure leave many perplexed to bits. Not familiar with Jenny Hval's other work but her version of Lush's "Sunbathing" is one hell of a yawning, lazy nightmare. Tune-Yards remain a personal favourite in 4AD's present catalogue, but here, they too sadly pissed away their opportunity to give the immortal "Cannonball" a far greater touch of their own - instead offering a downright subpar karaoke version, the exaggerated distortion probably being deliberate but all sounding just as painfully forced. "Where Is My Mind" covered by Tkay Maidza suffers even worse for that matter - while not over-distorted, it's a typically lame cover version countless others out there would have probably done much better. And then there's Future Islands - universally overrated, here they just add one more nail in their overrated coffin, turning Colourbox's masterpiece that is "The Moon Is Blue" into a criminally mediocre, toned down, boring imitation. Well, at least Samuel T. Herring isn't devouring the universe with his growls. And what's there to say about Sohn's "Song To The Siren"? Brave for trying but a failure just the same. It audibly leans on Liz Fraser's live rendition from a few years ago - resulting in a pretentious studio reinterpretation, Sohn's own voice all too weepy for its own good, the arrangement drifting all over the place for its own good, too...
The only spot-on passionate reinterpretation that deserves that one bright star here, is His Name Is Alive's classic "The Dirt Eaters" - performed by The Breeders. It could easily pass for HNIA's very own re-recording as such, while it isn't far from sounding like a lost gem missing from This Mortal Coil's 1991 magnum opus "Blood". Adding to it are Chris Bigg's trademark type designs, but apart from these, the compilation is just one great miss, with most these newer bands and individuals simply not able to compete with the label's glorious past. Sorry.
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