By their very nature, tribute albums are uncertain enterprises. If the featured artists adhere too closely to the compositions they're covering, the new versions are destined to seem superfluous by comparison. Conversely, if they are overzealous in their reworking of the original songs, legions of purists stand ready to label their work as near-sacrilege. Be that as it may, though, Even Better than the Real Thing - A Tribute to U2, the collaborative work of a consortium of six LA area indie labels whose artists contributed tracks to the release, offers plenty for listeners to take a shine to.
Friction Bailey retools "Pride (In the Name of Love)" as a loping folk/rock piece, sprinkling it with the occasional Latin horn to punctuate the splendid song's delicate acoustic texture. The Lift Off collective lays hold of the swelling intensity of "Where the Streets Have No Name," adding synth treatments and echo-laden vocals to lend the driving anthem an engaging sense of starkness. And the members of the Relatives, Doom Kounty Electric Chair and Tunnel Fishin' turn in blistering, best-of-album versions of "With or Without You," "An Cat Dubh" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" that are almost certain to make even the most feisty of garage bands nod their heads in approval. Even ostensible send-ups like Lance Angelus' lounge version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and Danny Dean and the Homewreckers' bouncing surf/swing take on "Two Hearts Beat as One" seem likely to draw knowing grins from the members of U2 themselves, who spent a good portion of the '90s lampooning their own star status.
The tribute is fairly equitable towards the U2 catalog as a whole, pulling tracks from seven of their eight studio albums (October is not represented). While over half of its tracks are taken, perhaps not surprisingly, from the group's biggest-sellers, Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree, Real Thing does feature roughly equal amounts of hit singles and lesser-known entries, which works well for both longtime fans and relative newcomers, alike. U2 devotees will appreciate a release full of skillful and exuberant reimaginings of their favorite band's output, while casual listeners will find the release an ideal way to sample the band's more obscure offerings while still garnering roughly an EP's worth of familiar material to fall back upon. While Real Thing may not, in the most literal sense, live up to its title as stated, it nevertheless stands as a much better than average tribute that mirrors the copious talent, and captures the gloriously abandoned spirit, of the band that it acknowledges.
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The Phantom Tollbooth 2002Reviewed by Matt Williams"Can you give me a general definition of imitation? for I really do not myself understand what it professes to be." from Plato's The Republic, Book X. It is said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, yet flattery is defined as "excessive praise from motives of self-interest." The imitator cannot match the creator's effort and thus, must make his aim to create his own from the original,…
