Fred Eltringham, drummer for bands like Gigolo Aunts and the Wallflowers, has struck out on his own. His debut album, a collection of cover songs, features heavy hitters like Kasey Musgraves and Sheryl Crow.

Opening track “Yes We Can Can,” featuring Sheryl Crow, is dull and doesn’t do a whole lot of anything. I just don’t feel this is a likeable record. Eltringham’s vocals are very bland and the same-sounding indie rock on every track doesn’t do much to change one’s opinion of these cover tunes. The fact that he can take a two and a half minute Lemonheads track like “Into Your Arms” and drag the damn thing out to over five minutes is just aggravating. This version is not very likeable at all; it feels like a wannabe indie rock song that advertisers would have used circa 2004. Don’t even get me started on how he sucks the soul out of Nilsson’s “Without Her,” and the bastardization of Irving Berlin’s classic “Always.” I just feel that this record sucks and there’s no sugarcoating it.

I can say that I hate it when an artist takes an already established song and records their own version of it to make a bit better, or whatever it is they’re thinking about it. If you’re going to record a cover song, either record a straight version of it like Weezer’s “Africa” or something that strips the song down to its pure essence like Faith No More doing “Easy” or Bomb doing Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” Otherwise, you’re trying to make the song your own and if you don’t have that great of a voice, good frickin’ luck trying to get to the core of what made you like the song in the first place. In summation: this is crap, crap, crap.

Rating: F

User Rating: Not Yet Rated

---

Comments