Customer Reviews

Tribute To [Vinyl]

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

 

 

Covers collections (and covers in general) are a tricky business. Artists who adhere too closely to their source material are branded as unoriginal, bringing nothing to the table (begging the question: why are we bothering with this?). Artists who veer sharply from the source material's sound and feel, however, run the risk of having their version labeled self-indulgent. I for one have always enjoyed a good cover, and I tend to give artists a lot of leeway in this area, but an overindulgent or redundant cover is always easy for me to spot. Yim Yames (or Jim James as most of us know him) has managed to tread the line just perfectly, turning in an exquisite covers set that proves him to be an excellent interpreter of songs.

What I love about this little collection is how Jim James really gets inside these songs, making them his own while maintaining an appropriate feeling of reverence for the material. He was obviously inspired by this music and clearly had developed a deep personal connection with it. The songs are re-imagined as haunting, beautiful almost-chamber-pop, with Jim's great soaring voice accompanied by minimal instrumentation. The collection really is a treasure, and as the warm summer days head towards a close I find myself listening to these Autumnal sounds more and more frequently. Somewhere between campfire sing-along and reverb-filled grain silo, the music echoes in a space all its own.

Worth every penny and then some, this is one of the better releases I have heard this year.

I know it is spelled differently, but this is Jim James from My Morning Jacket. It is Jim James doing stripped down, slower versions of famous George Harrison songs. This EP was recorded in 2001 soon after George Harrison died. It is sounds like the slower stuff of My Moring Jacket. It is slow and haunting and beautiful. I feel that even though these are very different versions of the songs Jim James really captures the essence of George Harrison (especially when compared to the All Things Must Pass out takes). I really enjoy James' version of "Long, Long, Long" from the White Album which was a subdued and slower song already. Bottom line: If you are a My Morning Jacet fan, then you need to buy this album.

Couple of things up front: Yim Yames (a/k/a Jim James of My Morning Jacket, one of my favorite bands of the last deacde) recorded this EP in 2001, shortly after George Harrison's passing. No idea why this was left on the shelves for 8 years, but better late than never (and also no idea why Jim James felt this had to be released as "Yim Yames").

"Tribute To" (6 tracks; 26 min.) brings 6 Harrison covers, with just Jim James playing acoustic guitar, with multitracking of his vocals, creating incredibly beautiful harmonies, check out the opening track "Long, Long, Long", which simply gives me shivers when listening to it. These recordings are awash in reverb, not surprisingly really if you sompare this to My Morning Jacket's "At Down" album from the same year this EP was recorded.

Jim James reinterprets the Harrison tunes beautifully, check out "Behind That Locked Door" and "Love You To", for example. The weakest track on here for me is the cover of "My Sweet Lord", which is too predictable, but in all fairness, it's a minor quib. It's a shame these recordings were left unreleased for so long. But now we can get to enjoy them, and what a delight they are. Back to the present: My Morning Jacket has been pretty much on hiatus the last year or so, after extensive touring behind their "Evil Urges" album, and Jim James got involved with Monters of Folk, a new one-off(?) band also containing Conor Oberst and M. Ward, and that album is coming out very shortly. I've heard a couple of songs of it already, and it sounds very enticing.

I love Jim James - but I think I prefer his creative genius when able to express himself with full band. I also like Jim James in the acoustic setting - though I prefer My Morning Jacket's Acoustic Cirtuoca & some tracks on the It Still Moves album over this. But let me also disclose that I'm not the biggest Beatles/Harrison fan either - so if you are - you may be able to appreciate this much more than I do. Another thing to consider - the proceeds of this album go to the Woodstock Animal Conservatory in New York - so at least the money is for a great cause!

Whenever I listen to George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass", I never listen to "My Sweet Lord". Not because I don't like the song, but I've listen to it too many times. Yim Yames ( aka) Jim James from "My Morning Jacket" covers George's songs so beautfully ( including "My Sweet Lord"), that I now let "All Things Pass" play from begining to end. Most arists are afraid to cover Harrison's song's, but not Jim James.
by being a true Harrison fan, Jim has created a masterpiece!
Buy Yim Yames "Tribute to George and you will find yourself going back and forth between "Tribute" and "All Things Must Pass".
If you never listened to "All Things Must Pass", buy it NOW! Along with Yim's "Tribute", you'll thank me.

being as how I could easily consider george harrison's all things must pass 3 LP set to be the undisputed number one recorded release of all time in my own humble opinion which hasn't changed since it's release in 1970 when I was 12 years old I fully expected to not like this EP set from jim james. it's a good choice of songs & all stay true or closely so to the originals, which I suppose is the only real reason one needs to like these six tracks.

I love this - There are some really great songs of George Harrison's to cover and I think he did a good job with the set he chose.

Jim James recorded this EP just days after George Harrison died. The people who complain about this desecrating George's music are somewhat out of line. It would be like criticizing someone's perfection of Michael Jackson's dance moves in response to the death of that musician. This EP really is James' way of mourning the loss of George Harrison. James made a comment to Bilboard magazine concerning this EP saying: ""I felt like I was in the weirdest head space when I did that EP... I felt really confused a lot of the time. I wanted to just do it and let it come out even if I messed stuff up. It's definitely not the tightest or most professional recording you're ever going to hear in your life but I like that. I think it lends it a more childish atmosphere." I've been listening to the originals alongside James' covers and I like what he does with them. I wouldn't say that they are better than the original versions, but it is an honorable tribute.

I recognize that the EP was recorded several years ago, but, since I'm listening to the Fleet Foxes at the moment, it occurs to me that echo is to indie folk-rock what Autotune is to hiphop.

I like every single one of the Jim James tribute songs, but the echo keeps me from listening all the way through. I've dumped the songs into a random mix and will hear them when they occur instead of bunched up and echoey.

Do yourself a favor and get the original George Harrison versions. The versions here pale in comparison.