Various Artists - No Man's Woman (Album)
No Man’s Woman supposedly gestated from one fan’s initial desire to hear You Am I perform a cover of a Patti Smith tune. Alas, this song is noticeably missing from the fourteen tracks performed by some of our fine contemporary male artists. In essence, if one has to pinpoint a compilation that this release shares some similarity with, then that would be, She Will Have Her Way - The Songs Of Tim and Neil Finn. Where previously, some great female musicians gave the songs of Neil and Tim Finn a makeover, it was now time for the blokes to enter the lab and cook up a new batch of music by the girls. Before I begin, I could get into a debate about why some songs were chosen for this mix (after all, everyone knows that 'I Am Woman' was written by a man and that Prince wrote Sinead O’Connor’s hit, 'Nothing Compares To You') and what about bands like The Divinyls, Blondie and Fleetwood Mac who each had male musicians who often shared the same degree of limelight as their gregarious female singers. But I digress; as the cause seems like a good one (power to my sisters, after all,) so let’s get down to business shall we?
Now some people are snubs of the cover song because they believe they will only like the original version and others may dislike covers that are merely a replication of the original, with little thought given to experimentation or putting your own signature on someone else’s work, so to speak. I used to think I fit in the former category until I heard this exceptional release. Gyroscope and Grinspoon are good at replicating The Breeders’ 'Cannonball' and The Divinyls 'Boys In Town', respectively. However, my preference is for the former, because they pay the Deal sisters a great homage, overall. Whereas the latter, despite performing the music well, fail dismally in the vocal department as Phil Jamieson is too far off the mark to perform like the amazing Chrissy Amphlett.
Some other acts are a lot more original as The Vines turn The Veronicas’ '4EVA' from an annoyingly raucous and unbearable pop song into a heartfelt ballad of sorts. Dan Kelly, armed with only a ukulele performs a minimalist version of 'Nothing Compares To You' . Meanwhile, Tex Perkins adds his own tongue-in-cheek introduction to his band The Ladyboys and their cover of Helen Reddy’s, 'I Am Woman'. However, the way Perkins delivers his vocals in the subsequent song leaves me wondering if he is actually trying to attempt a serious effort.
Josh Pyke does an exceptional job with Kate Bush’s 'Wuthering Heights'. He makes a believable Cathy pining for her Heathcliff (albeit adopting a more masculine persona to the original, but one who is nevertheless believable). Honourable mentions should also go to the fantastic covers performed by Lior (Fleetwood Mac’s 'Landslide'), Whitley (Bjork’s 'Hyperballad') and Bob Evans (Lucinda Williams’ 'Car Wheels On A Gravel Road').
In sum, this release was really pleasing to listen to and highly entertaining. While it mostly covered the acoustic genre, it was not without a few rock moments. This release is a testament to the quality of the original songs and our current batch of talented artists, as some did accomplished replications of the original but for the most part, were able to paint their own artistic marks upon the works by others. Pat yourselves on the backs boys, because you’ve converted this once “covers snub” into a new follower of the genre.
So girls, when are you going to follow suit and record a collection of songs by the blokes? With the end of Movember soon approaching, someone should give it a thought...
