Alternative Rock Compilations music reviews

The artists on this label are amazing. This comp is one of the best out there!! It gives some of the lesser known Trustkill artists a chance to be heard. I got introduced to Fight Paris on this comp and just love them. It Dies Today is another amazing band as are Bullet for my Valentine and Bedlight for blueEYES (Track 3- Ephemeral Addictions), Roses are Red, and Hopesfall. This comp is a must for any fan of Trustkill Records.

Often when "Various Artists," none of whom you've heard of, cover a band that you have not only heard of but probably liked--if you're considering a tribute compilation, it's implicit--it's risky. I came across this in a second-hand assortment of CDs and took the risk. The first couple of songs made me think I'd been foolish. These reminded me of Nina Hagen or the new-wave one-hit band Berlin: early 80s synth-pop. But, then the pace picked up and until the cover of "Seattle," did not let up. Techno and post-punk industrial danceable but assaultive interpretations of the best songs off of PiL's first (and best) three albums flowed together well in a sequence perfect for imitating a club DJ's mixtape on your home or car system.

PiL lends itself best by musicians updating its sounds into this genre. Bands here reminded me of such other 80s tunes by The Fall, Killing Joke, Ministry, and the Touch & Go Chicago label's trademark combo of pummel and rhythm. What's not so successful are those covers here that try to too closely mimic John Lydon's inimitable (if much imitated) vocal styles. Many of the better deliveries here are by female singers, who can adopt his yowls and crescendos and swoops while avoiding too close a timbre of his male pitch. The lackluster covers of "Seattle" & "This Is What You Want," fittingly, are of PiL's later songs, when the conceit that it was a band had faded to John & his hired hands, and the music of latter PiL certainly suffers by comparison--the worst versions here are of the two weakest songs covered.

The album, for the last third, settles into a steady, if less confrontational, sequence; the last song, a textured and emotional cover of Banging the Door, shows how an intelligent approach inspired by but not slavish to the PiL original can keep the spirit of PiL at their experimental early best still fresh two-and-a-half decades later.

Good CD overall but I was a bit bummed when I realized all the songs on both CDs were performed by a cover band. The cover band is good and all but I was hoping for original artists.