Bought early in 2001, solely to round out my collection of Magnetic Fields rarities. This unremarkable tribute includes the band making their way through "Heroes". Recorded in the mid-90s, around the same time as Wasps' Nests (which went under the name of The 6ths, essentially The Magnetic Fields plus guest vocalists), it has the same deadpan attitude — and I'm still not convinced by the equation "sounding bored = Brechtian".
Two things distinguish Bowie's "Heroes" for me. One is Robert Fripp's guitar playing. Refusing to try and emulate this, and just hinting at it through understatement turns out to be remarkably effective. The original guitar line is so powerful that it turns out to be possible to invoke it through the merest of traces. The other feature is the variety in Bowie's vocal, accentuated by the way it was recorded with three separate microphones (described on Wikipedia). Refusing to try and emulate this, and just flatlining the vocal as a disinterested monotone turns out to be predictably dull. While Bowie's version always manages to seem much longer than it is, in a good way, this 'tribute' seems way too long in the worst way.
MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to this album in full at Last.fm |
Comments