Customer Reviews

Radio 1's Live Lounge 2

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I think the first time I heard the live lounge was when I discovered The Fray's extremely quirky cover of "Hips Don't Lie." Imagine that, Issac Slade's dry voice singing a Shakira song. Only in the Live Lounge. It's must-listen radio where anything goes, as long as it's good. Some are better than others, and the covers are usually better than the chart-topping hits. But back to "Hips Don't Lie," I mean really, you have to listen to this, because it's so funny, out-there, and quirky. A must for any Fray fan, and certainly for anybody that's heard the original.

Here's another more serious cover, that's probably better than the original. 30 Seconds To Mars' cover of Kanye West's "Stronger," is as haunting as it is incredible. It's the same song, but they sound almost nothing alike. From Jared Leto's strong vocal performance to the dark music, it succeeds in every manner as it builds for 6 minutes.

On a lighter note, The Pigeon Detectives give a decidedly fun Brit rock cover of Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend," which keeps the gender-bending lyrics intact until the very end. It's great in that raw garage rock sort of way, and certainly one you can bounce your head to. Natasha Bedingfield gives her best vocal and emotional performance in "Chasing Cars," which shows that she has some true talent beneath all the studio-produced fluff. It doesn't come off sappy as you might think, and the song seems to strike all the right chords. And how could we forget the uniquely voiced Billy Clyro, who gives a pleasant take on the widely-covered Rihanna Summer 2007 hit.

But sadly, not all is roses and tulips. Although this acoustic version inspired the superior studio version, Amy Whinehouse, not surprisingly, gives a rather lazy performance, which doesn't do her already teetering vocals any favors. Paolo Nutini's cover of "Rehab" isn't a much of a cover as it seems to be more of a vocal and musical copycat. And even though there's 40 songs on the collection, many of these are devoted to rather plain acoustic versions of songs by the original artists, which takes space away from several other amazing covers left off this disc. Sure, The Holloways and the Foo Fighters do well doing their own songs, but others come out dry and boring.

So overall, I still wish they'd ax the acoustic versions, and just stick to the covers, but there is plenty of gold to be found in this treasure trove. Still largely unheard of in America, The Live Lounge is a great place for artists to make great music, give original takes on tired classics, and add their hand of brilliance to otherwise dull specks on the charts. I just can't wait till volume 3, and the amazing tracks of Pendulum's "Violet Hill," and so many others.

Real Score: 4.5

This was excellent! I actually liked this much better than Vol 1 when I first listened to them both (but Vol 1 grew on me so now I love them both!). I was blown away by Biffy Clyro's acoustic cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella". Other amazing tracks were Nelly Furtado's acoustic "Maneater", Jose Gonzales's cover of "Heartbeats", Paolo Nutini's cover of Rehab, Mika's all piano version and incredible vocal range of "Grace Kelly" and James Morrison's soulful "You Give Me Something".

Because these tracks are recorded live, you really get to marvel at the talent of these bands (and of course realize the flaws of the lesser talented ones). I also had not heard of most of these bands before so I was especially excited to be introduced to them. I will say I only paid $26 each for Vol 1 & 2 at Virgin Records, I'm not sure if I would have been as pleased if I had paid almost twice the price for them mostly because as much as there were awesome tracks, there were also some that I didn't care for.

Great live/studio album! Anyone that likes to hear the band play live, this is totally worth it. The seller is very reliable, I have bought the Live Lounge 1 album, and both were in great condition.

I loved the first live lounge. Excellent artists, great versions, etc. This follow-up seemed to be a compilation of the next best tracks. There were only a few tracks I liked, and were certainly second best to the original version. If they do a third version, they need to compile more material before choosing the tracks to put on it.