Destination Unknown
Once of Grant Lee Buffalo, Grant-Lee Phillips returns with his fourth solo album that comprises of eleven semi-acoustic cover versions. Citing these songs as the soundtrack to his formative years there are tracks from the Pixies, Joy Division, New Order, The Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Church, REM, Nick Cave, The Cure and Robyn Hitchcock.
The whole album is done in the same laid back acoustic style and on first listen it's quite interesting to see what Phillips has done to each song. They are all instantly recognisable, as they were all distinctive songs in their own right, so a total change of style doesn't affect the core of each song. Some of the songs work better than others, Joy Division's 'The Eternal' comes across particularly well, as does The Cure's 'Boys Don't Cry'.
Elsewhere a couple of the tracks are a little flat, REM's 'So.Central Rain (I'm Sorry)' doesn't really go anywhere and Echo and the Bunnymen's 'Killing Moon' lacks the raw edge that was a big part of it's appeal first time around. The whole album just seems to lack any kind of energy and whilst the production is fairly lavish throughout, giving the album a full sound, it can't prevent some of the tracks from simply washing over.
As a personal exercise for Phillips I can see the validity behind it but as a punter I'd much rather hear a new album of original material. After a while I find the whole album rather uncomfortable listening, perhaps if I didn't know the original versions it would just come across as a decent acoustic album? As it is I find myself thinking why would I want to listen to this version of The Pixies 'Wave of Mutilation' instead of the original? Phillips has taken songs that inspired him, sucked all the energy out of them and made them uninspiring and in that respect I find this a rather pointless project.