Customer Reviews

Friends & Lovers: Songs of Bread

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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?

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.

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.

This CD is another example of why remakes should be outlawed. It's not worth the electricity it took to produce. The Guitar Man by Bread is a favorite. This version is at the bottom. If you are a diehard fan of Bread. Don't waste your money on this one! Personally, I'd rather hear Micheal Bolton squeal a tune. But, then again one torture is quite enough!