Customer Reviews

Mojo Presents Sgt. Pepper ..With a Little Help From His Friends

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This CD of new cover versions of songs from the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was included with an issue of Mojo Magazine. The songs are mostly performed by alternative rock acts that you never heard of. However, for the most part, they do a pretty good job. They put their own spin on these songs and they are all pretty interesting. Anyway, none of them are terrible. The "bonus track" is the previously recorded "All You Need is Love" by Echo & the Bunnymen, a band you may have actually have heard of. This is a decent version of the song. Here is the complete track listing:

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Simple Kid
2. With a Little Help From My Friends - Puerto Muerto
3. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds - Circulus
4. Getting Better - Fionn Regan
5. Fixing a Hole - 747s
6. She's Leaving Home - Unkle Bob
7. Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite - Bikeride
8. Within You Without You - Stephanie Dosen
9. When I'm Sixty-Four - Chin Up Chin Up
10. Lovely Rita - Dave Cloud & the Gospel of Power
11. Good Morning Good Morning - The M's
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - Simple Kid
13. A Day in the Life - Captain
14. All You Need is Love - Echo & the Bunnymen

Ask a 100 BEATLE fans and it is quite possible that SGT.PEPPERs will come up as the best loved BEATLES LP or at least in the Top 3. I'm not even sure, having liatened to this covers album of Fab Four favs that I understand fully why the BEATLES LP is a all-time classic anymore myself. I mean it contains some gems, like "LUCY" and the Title Track bookends, the wonderful ballad "SHE'S LEAVING HOME" amoung it's song list; classics to be sure. But songs hardly amoung John,Paul George & Ringo's all time best. And then album is interspersed (WITHIN WITHOUT, MR KITE, GOOD MORNING) with mediocrity. Not bad songs, but not in the same league with "LOVELY RITA" or "A DAY IN THE LIFE" in the BEATLES canon of craft. None the less, SGT. PEPPERS, the album is, if not the BEATLES best, perhaps their most popular title.

That said, if you have the nads to tackle an all-time classic you better be dang sure of what you are taking on. There are several approches to covering PEPPER; you play it straight up (conceeding no originality at all), and there is some of that here. You admit defeat and just flat out tank it (and there is also several dogs on this disc). Or you go for it and try and do some thing absolutley and utterly different; reinventing a classic, and there is maybe one exampe, of that here. Well worth it.

Over all, this CD was dissapointing. I wish that were not the case. I am a BEATLE song collector, so if my target was to find different versions of FAB FOUR trax...I succeeded. Good BEATLE trax, not so good.


Let look inside, shall we:

1. simple kid - sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band
Starts off like "Slim Shady" by Eminem and goes down hill from there. Nothing special here. Not bad, but I rate this cut C+.

2. puerto muerto - with a little help from my friends
Begins like cabaret muzak, like Marlene Dietrik singing. It evolves into a quaint duet with simple acostic strumming. Not bad, but not quite special enough to rate high. I give it a B-.

3. circulus - lucy in the sky with diamonds
A step backwards. Non very tuneful and despite some attempts to add flutes and psychodelia, it falls flat. C-.

4. fionn regan - getting better
Things picked up a bit for me with this sweet version. Sort of a Beck meets Nick Drake. I liked this B+.

5. 747's fixing a hole
This song is a dead ringer for the BEATLES so I can't argue with the arrangements. It sounds as close to anything on this disc to the original. Grade: B-.

6. unkle bob - she's leaving home
This is the one. They took a great song, basically stripped away the verses and just jammed the chorus over and over for 4 minutes. Closser to "I WANT YOU/SHE'S SO HEAVY" than "SHE'S LEAVING HOME" but what a jam. Loved it. My favorite new version of this old sawhorse. Wonderful Beach Boy-harmony, hard,loud, Radiohead/Cold Play piano/power chords, I liked this one so much. Bob's your uncle, we have a winner. GRADE A.

7. bike ride - being for the benefit of mr kite
Yeah, they sounds like Lennon singing "KITE" no major revolation here, so I give this a C-.

8. stephanie dosen - within you without you
Steph deffinetely had me dozin, cause this bad Cocteau Twins vs. Kate Bush immitation, was not very fun to listen to. Sorry charlie, throw this fish back. Not so good. D.

9. chin up chin up - when i'm 64
Lou Reed or Jonathan Richmond may want to collect royalties for the way these guys are ripping them off here. Not good. Out of tune, off key and silly. D+.

10. dave cloud & the gospel of power - lovely rita
Even worse, how someone could take a perfecty joyful RITA and make it so disturbingly bland and bad is beyond me. So studioply bad, brings up the grades of other bad songs. Maybe the worst thing son here. Grade: D-

11. the m's - good morning good morning
Sounds like the Beatles, so why do it. John impersonator does a great Lennon, but nothing special here. Never my favorite BEATLES cut to start with. Grade: C+

12. simple kid - sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band - reprise
They're baaaaack. But not much better. This low-fi take on the REPRISE is Ok, but reminded me that I hadn't really enjoyed much of the show at all. Having only spend 1 penny (plus shipping & handling), I may have over spent on this CD. Grade B-

13. captain - a day in the life
For all I know this MOJO PRESENTS disc could just be one band doing all of these songs and I'd never know the difference. I wouldn't know the band, "Captain", from any other unknown on this CD. As far as songs go, "DAY IN THE LIFE" was ok. Not fantastic but enjoyable and trippy enough to enjoy, they held the voices together well enough to sound ok, the playing was fine. I enjoyed this one ok. Grade: B+

BONUS TRACK (alleged Bonus)
14. echo and the bunnymen - all you need is love
This ain't your daddy's ECHO. Sounds too loose and uninspired. Not very fun at all. Grade C.

If you cn get it for one cent, the way I did, and collect BEATELS covers, it might, I say might, interest you. But over all not a splendid time.

But interesting

Most of the songs on this album are pretty sweet. A couple are kinda lame. I played trombone on Mr. Kite w/ Bikeride, along w/ Adam who played bass and trumpet. Before Bikeride he played in Aquabats, and currently does a lot of music (and the voice of Muno) on Yo Gabba Gabba. Check out the CD though, it's a fun listen. Also highly recommend Bikeride's other albums, really an underrated, unknown band that makes some wonderful pleasant fun indie pop music.

Some of Bikeride's albums:
Morning Macumba
The Kiss
37 Secrets I Only Told America
Summer Winners Summer Losers
Here Comes the Summer