.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Motown Soul meets Brit Invasion crisis equals sweet music with Mark Ronson's Version!
By Marcus Scott
Producer and heavy-hitter British-born New York DJ Mark Ronson made it big when he introduced the US mainstream to jazz-soul Ivor Novello Award siren Amy Winehouse with her 2007 smash “Rehab.” A few months later, he released the experimental dance-soul record “Version,” an album that’s equal parts British Invasion and Motown Sound, covering some of the Brit’s best with a Motown jig.
Ronson blindsides crowds everywhere with his techno go-go sound when he fuses the sexy vocals of crooner Melbourne R&B vocalist Daniel Merriweather on a cover of The Smith’s "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," and blends it with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On." This is a lovely pastiche of 60’s Memphis soul revue and a funk-driven, juiced-up brass sound. While Merriweather doesn’t do a thing to alter the heartbreak in Morrissey’s lyrics, Merriweather makes the lyrics inviting with is soft and sentimental tenor. Morrissey, who has stickler for the obscure and the heartbreaking, can always shed a tear: “smelt the last ten seconds of life/ I crashed down on the crossbar/ And the pain was enough to make/A shy, bald, Buddhist reflect/And plan a mass murder.”
But Ronson takes it a step further with “Valerie,” a Zutons’ track, that mirrors a Las Vegas showgirl act turned Northern Soul when he tag teams with Amy Winehouse. It sounds like she’s in a state of urgency, wailing like a Valkyrie, ringing the alarm on her way to war. Winehouse who sings the song without changing the song’s gender, breathes life into the song, altering the song’s rock-heavy sound into what could easily have been something out of a Motown’s rarity record.
The standout track on the album however, is “Oh my God,” a Kaiser Chiefs’ cover. Reggae vixen Lily Allen puts a smile on after her 2006 signature hit, and revs up the engine to create magic with Ronson. In her element, the song is a reggae tinged dance number with a sleazy-scandalous vibe that recalls a night out in the red light district, and it just works.
The album’s go-go Motown funk and hip-hop jazz savvy will compel Deejays and jazz folks for years to come. It has some dead spots but it cleans house.
Producer and heavy-hitter British-born New York DJ Mark Ronson made it big when he introduced the US mainstream to jazz-soul Ivor Novello Award siren Amy Winehouse with her 2007 smash “Rehab.” A few months later, he released the experimental dance-soul record “Version,” an album that’s equal parts British Invasion and Motown Sound, covering some of the Brit’s best with a Motown jig.
Ronson blindsides crowds everywhere with his techno go-go sound when he fuses the sexy vocals of crooner Melbourne R&B vocalist Daniel Merriweather on a cover of The Smith’s "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," and blends it with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On." This is a lovely pastiche of 60’s Memphis soul revue and a funk-driven, juiced-up brass sound. While Merriweather doesn’t do a thing to alter the heartbreak in Morrissey’s lyrics, Merriweather makes the lyrics inviting with is soft and sentimental tenor. Morrissey, who has stickler for the obscure and the heartbreaking, can always shed a tear: “smelt the last ten seconds of life/ I crashed down on the crossbar/ And the pain was enough to make/A shy, bald, Buddhist reflect/And plan a mass murder.”
But Ronson takes it a step further with “Valerie,” a Zutons’ track, that mirrors a Las Vegas showgirl act turned Northern Soul when he tag teams with Amy Winehouse. It sounds like she’s in a state of urgency, wailing like a Valkyrie, ringing the alarm on her way to war. Winehouse who sings the song without changing the song’s gender, breathes life into the song, altering the song’s rock-heavy sound into what could easily have been something out of a Motown’s rarity record.
The standout track on the album however, is “Oh my God,” a Kaiser Chiefs’ cover. Reggae vixen Lily Allen puts a smile on after her 2006 signature hit, and revs up the engine to create magic with Ronson. In her element, the song is a reggae tinged dance number with a sleazy-scandalous vibe that recalls a night out in the red light district, and it just works.
The album’s go-go Motown funk and hip-hop jazz savvy will compel Deejays and jazz folks for years to come. It has some dead spots but it cleans house.
To get a glimpse of the July/August addition of Nu Urban Magazine with a copy of the Mark Ronson album review, go to: http://nuurbanmag.com/2nd%20issue.html
No comments:
Post a Comment