Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Cover Album, March 28, 2006
I have to say that what I expected and what I got from this album are two fairly different things. It sounds neither like a Tortoise album or any of Will Oldham's alter-egos. What it does sound like is a new band from where two bands met each other half way. Another words, proving that these musicians are still open to new avenues dispite the success they have already formulated for themselves.
Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy (W.Oldham) took a bunch of cover songs and totally made them their own. I am familiar with the original versions of about half of the songs and they definitely molded them into something new and exciting.
For instance Bruce Springsteen's Thunder Road almost sounds like a 70's prog song (a la Genesis)- it's an excellent version. I also love Cravo é Canela, Calvery Cross and It's Expected I'm Gone. Really, there isn't a bad song on here and overall it doesn't feel like an album of cover songs.
I hope they do it again- maybe next time with some originals mixed in. Definitely check this out if you are a Tortoise fan or a Will Oldham fan.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
fins to feet for both artists, February 14, 2006
When I first heard this was coming out, it seemed an unusual pairing. When I learned it would be all covers my interest was even more piqued.
Upon listening and taking some time to digest, I like it quite a bit, although it is a departure for both Tortoise and Will Oldham. Tortoise with vocals? By necessity, they adopt a more conventional approach to song structure. And Oldham outside of his alternative folk mantle, singing Springsteen, Elton John, and the Minutemen?
"Thunder Road" trounces the overwrought original, and "Cravo e Canela" could go on twice as long without any complaint from me. "Daniel" and some of the other songs are less successful, even bearing a whiff of kitsch for kitsch's sake -- but overall the performances are solid, the selections are diverse, and the delivery is superb.
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15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quality stuff, February 1, 2006
I got this because it was cheap at my local used disc store (Second Spin, in Costa Mesa) and I've generally followed Will Oldham...pretty wacky nutjob he is, too, but he's produced a lot of great, moving and well-written songs. Tortoise, I've also enjoyed...but, I didn't have very high expectations for this. I thought it would be way too out there, too experimental, and that it would drain everything good out of some songs I really loved...Well, I needn't have worried. The songs are treated with reverence, even if, in some cases, they're pretty much unrecognizable...the heart and soul are still there...
Great cover, too.
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