Friends & Lovers: Songs of Bread

Various Artists (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 19, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Badman Records
• ASIN: B0007R8FN0
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #241,981 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. It Don't Matter To Me - Josh Rouse

2. Baby I'm A Want You - Call And Response

3. Games Of Magic - Jon Auer

4. The Guitar Man - Cake

5. Friends And Lovers - Erlend Oye

6. Everything I Own - Paula Frazer

7. Down On My Knees - Ken Stringfellow

8. Make It With You - Oranger

9. I Use The Soap - Dave Derby

10. Last Time - Holy Sons

11. Too Much Love - Emily Sparks

12. Look At Me - The Moore Brothers

13. If - Rachel Goswell

14. The Goodbye Girl - Bart Davenport

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Indie rockers make Bread, April 19, 2005

By 

William Merrill "eclecticist" (San Antonio, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friends & Lovers: Songs of Bread (Audio CD)

Following their three superb Shanti Project collections and a cool tribute to John Denver (Take Me Home, in 2000), the good folks at Badman Co. have done it again with this trib CD to '70s soft-popsters Bread. As someone who loved the original Bread songs AND is a fan of many of the cover artists, this new disc was a must-have item for me, and it fully lived up to my expectations. The kind of tribute I usually appreciate most is one where the artists take the original song and re-interpret it in their own way. Most of these Bread coverers have done that, such as Cake's funky, synthed-up "Guitar Man" and the psychedelic intro and outro to Oranger's version of "Make It With You." Still, others know when to keep important elements of the originals, especially the vibrating electric guitar on "If," performed by Rachel Goswell of Mojave 3. Josh Rouse's almost note-perfect copy of "It Don't Matter To Me" adds nothing to the original version, but the song is such a perfect piece of music, you can't blame Josh for not messing with what worked so well the first time.

The lineup of musicians on this disc is truly impressive, including two ex-Posies, pop faves Call & Response, and many up-and-coming artists like Dave Derby and Erlend Oye. The John Denver trib was fun; this one is even better. What's next, Badman? A Carpenters tribute CD? Air Supply?

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality Tribute, September 28, 2011

By 

I'm Shaun - See all my reviews

This review is from: Friends & Lovers: Songs of Bread (Audio CD)

I just gave this album a listen after having been aware of it for some time, in the midst of a Bread kick. I have to say that I was impressed. Pay no mind to the reviewers who make no mention of the word "indie" within their reviews, as they seemed to have missed the idea behind this project. The artist I had expected to turn out the strongest performance on here (Erlend Oye), though very good, was probably not even close to my favorite. No tracks stand out as especially weak and the highlights by Josh Rouse, Call and Response, Jon Auer, Oranger and Eric Shea mix nicely with everything else.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Nope., May 29, 2006

By 

James Roche "cooljames" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Friends & Lovers: Songs of Bread (Audio CD)

I tried. Nope. No. No way.

When producers go looking for less awesome bands to cover awesome bands for a tribute CD, what do they look for? Do they scour the globe for the biggest famous fans of the band? Do they look for sound-alike groups? Do they have any criteria at all? For this one, it sounds like a mix of all three, and the mix doesn't work.

One thing that's significant about Bread is that their songs are perfect. For the era, the song, and the setting, Bread did the best job ever of matching soft vocals with tender instrumentation to make love songs that put you in love with the person they're singing about. This doesn't do it for me. None of these songs improve on anything from the original tracks. Sorry, but it's true.

The only redeeming quality of this album is that they didn't touch "Lost Without Your Love", which is the best of the Bread hits. I'll give them that credit.