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31 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than I expected..., November 13, 2007
In the now decade since guitarist Chris DeGarmo departed Queensryche, the band seems to have been severely lacking in direction and execution. 1999's Q2K suffered from limp songwriting and 2003's Tribe was, while significantly more satisfying than it's predecessor, inconsistent (likely because of the presence of the departed DeGarmo on a handful of its tracks). But after Tribe, the band took a turn that made me nervous-- touring as part of packages, playing nostalgia-oriented shows, and finally releasing a disasterous sequel to their '80s metal masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime (the cleverly titled Operation: Mindcrime II), in what seemed a desperate effort to regain their past success. You can probably guess that I didn't have good feelings about "Take Cover", an album of cover songs. But having had a long love affair with Queensryche, I was willing to give it a spin. I loved Rush's cover album from a few years back (Feedback), maybe this one would surprise me too.
Overall, I can safely say, it's not bad. But take that comment for what it is-- faint praise at best. By and large, the band avoids the trap of sounding like a cover band by actually making the songs their own-- this gives the record a real sense of consistency. And the arrangements are actually by and large quite clever (Jesus Christ Superstar track "Heaven on their Minds" gets a great, fairly straight metal reading, Stephen Stills' classic "For What It's Worth" gets its chorus butchered, but in a good way). Further, vocalist Geoff Tate is in fine voice throughout-- he sounds as if he's finally becoming comfortable with the (natural) aging of his voice (Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain") whereas previously it sounded like he was struggling between trying to sing like he did in his 20s and finding something new.
Still, as much as there is to like, at times the band approaches the material with reverence bordering on plasticity (the admittely incredibly well arranged Pink Floyd classic, "Welcome to the Machine", The Police's "Synchronicity II") or seems just a bit off on tackling the material (Tate's incredibly uncomfortable vocal on the bridge of Queen's "Innuendo" is the best example).
I suspect some people out there will really love this, and admittedly I was perhaps hostile to it from the start, but "Take Cover", while quite listenable, is distinctly lacking. Its strengths come forth when the band is clearly having a good time (like on "For What It's Worth") as opposed to the material that was clearly a stronger influence on them. Fans will want to pick this up, everyone else can probably live without it.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not great, but mostly fun., January 30, 2009
I have to admit to being a pretty big fan of cover albums. It's always interesting to me to hear a band pay tribute to their influences, and to just cut loose and have a little fun. Sometimes they turn out great, sometimes not so much. I would say that this particular one falls somewhere in between.
The one thing you can say about this album is that it incorporates a pretty diverse array of artists. However, this is both good and bad. There are places where the band excels, especially on the Dio Sabbath tune "Neon Knights" (which is simply tailor made for Tate's vocals), and on Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine", which retains all of the creepy grandiosity of the original.
However, there are also songs like the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money" and Crosby, Stills, and Nash's "Almost Cut My Hair" that just really didn't fit with the band's style or Geoff Tate's vocals. Also, I nearly groaned in protest when I saw Buffalo Sprigfield's "For What It's Worth" was included on here, not that I have anything against the song, but it's already been done to death. Ozzy and Rush both already did this song on their own cover albums, and neither really brought anything new to the original. However, this particular version is done a bit different from the original. It's not amazing or anything, but at least they sort of made it their own.
In between, the rest is pretty decent. The Police's "Synchronicity II" and Peter Gabriel's "Red Rain" are both done well, and the band takes some interesting ventures outside of the norm with "Odissea" and "Heaven On Their Minds", which are reverent and well-accomplished nods to Tate's background in opera and broadway, respectively. If I had to pick a favorite here, I'd say that Queen's "Innuendo" is arguably the standout. This is an insanely difficult song to recreate, but the band never misses a step, and Tate does the late great Freddie Mercury justice like few people could.
The album ends with a live cover of U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky", which is pretty cool, but kind of goes on for too long. This is one of my favorite U2 songs, and the band rocks it for sure, but I don't know, I would have preferred a studio recording to this long rambling version.
Overall, not a bad album. Not a must-have by any means, but it's a fun buy if you like covers.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Benefits from repeated listening, April 1, 2008
Okay, I will admit, the first time I heard this the phrase, WTF?, went through my head. The first track, a cover of Pink Floyd's Welcome to the Machine, was brilliant. There is a lot of similarity between Queensryche's sound and Pink Floyd's sound, so this transition was pretty smooth. Then came Jesus Christ Superstar!?!? Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Peter Gabriel, Sting????
This was daring, to say the least. However, the band did make the songs their own. It still sounds like Queensryche. So what happened was I kept going back to hear a particular song over again, and then let the CD play as I got involved in other things. After hearing the tracks a few times, they started to grow on me, to the point that this was the only CD I listened to for the next few days. Moral: don't be to quick to push this disc aside. Give it time.
I debated between giving this three stars and four stars, but given the general lackluster reviews, I thought I would give them the fourth star for daring to step outside their musical comfort zone. If you are a Queensryche fan, this is a must have.
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