Various Artists - “Dig Cave, Dig”
June 18th 2011 01:59
I think there is little doubt that Nick Cave is a genius. You may not be his biggest fan, but you still appreciate the body of work that has been his career and more importantly can appreciate his influence on so many Australian artists over the past ten years. So with that, it is fitting that this homage to the man is paid in the form of this compilation album “Dig Cave, Dig”.
Sadly, this is the biggest pile of crap assembled on a CD. This is an utter disgrace to the talents of Cave and the artists chosen have managed to take some of his best songs and completely ruin them with “artistic license” to make them sound childish, amateurish and....well...shit. This album is a disservice and everyone involved in the making of this record should be hung, drawn and quartered for the desecration of eleven perfectly good tracks.
I understand that sometimes it is necessary, when covering another artists song, to change things a bit. It is often fraught with danger but sometimes it can be pulled off and the cover version can be just as incredible as the original. The eleven artists on this have not pulled it off. The greatest atrocity is Luke Legs covering ‘Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow’. He turned it into a country song and from the sounds of it, learnt to the play the song while recording on the first take and then went, “That’ll do!” It is an insult to the ears. Hello Morning managed to take the darkness and spookiness out of ‘Red Right Hand’, which would be good if it wasn’t for the fact that song is so good because of the darkness and spookiness. The Fumes covering ‘Into My Arms’ lacked the passion and emotion that makes this song so powerful and I don’t even get what Little Wolf and Casey Harnett were trying to achieve in ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’, but sing in tune was not one of them.
This album’s only potential saving grace is Little Red do a good job on ‘Do You Love Me?’ by not deviating from the original and The Vasco Era doing ‘Dig Lazarus Dig’ isn’t too bad, but considering it’s surrounded by complete crap, it’s not hard to sound good.
Nick Cave fans, you will be insulted by this record. Ill thought, ill conceived and completely the wrong artists chosen to pay respects to a songwriting legend. It’s left a sour taste in my mouth and there’s not enough whisky in the world to erase it.
Sadly, this is the biggest pile of crap assembled on a CD. This is an utter disgrace to the talents of Cave and the artists chosen have managed to take some of his best songs and completely ruin them with “artistic license” to make them sound childish, amateurish and....well...shit. This album is a disservice and everyone involved in the making of this record should be hung, drawn and quartered for the desecration of eleven perfectly good tracks.
I understand that sometimes it is necessary, when covering another artists song, to change things a bit. It is often fraught with danger but sometimes it can be pulled off and the cover version can be just as incredible as the original. The eleven artists on this have not pulled it off. The greatest atrocity is Luke Legs covering ‘Fifteen Feet Of Pure White Snow’. He turned it into a country song and from the sounds of it, learnt to the play the song while recording on the first take and then went, “That’ll do!” It is an insult to the ears. Hello Morning managed to take the darkness and spookiness out of ‘Red Right Hand’, which would be good if it wasn’t for the fact that song is so good because of the darkness and spookiness. The Fumes covering ‘Into My Arms’ lacked the passion and emotion that makes this song so powerful and I don’t even get what Little Wolf and Casey Harnett were trying to achieve in ‘Where The Wild Roses Grow’, but sing in tune was not one of them.
This album’s only potential saving grace is Little Red do a good job on ‘Do You Love Me?’ by not deviating from the original and The Vasco Era doing ‘Dig Lazarus Dig’ isn’t too bad, but considering it’s surrounded by complete crap, it’s not hard to sound good.
Nick Cave fans, you will be insulted by this record. Ill thought, ill conceived and completely the wrong artists chosen to pay respects to a songwriting legend. It’s left a sour taste in my mouth and there’s not enough whisky in the world to erase it.
Dig Cave Dig
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