Ultimate Music Makeover is a unique creation in that other artists are invited to redo their favorite songs from Michael W. Smith and put whatever spin they want on the songs. Many tribute albums would focus on the best songs from an artist but not this project. This results in some interesting songs appearing on this album, such as "Lamu."
Ultimate Music Makeover starts off strong with great tracks from All Star United, Sarah Kelly, and Shaun Groves. All Star United starts things off with an interesting rock version of the Smitty crossover-class "Go West Young Man." Sarah Kelly rocks "You Need a Savior." Things continue to rock and stay on a high note with a Shaun Groves cover of "Rocketown," with some grinding guitars. At this point in the album, all three songs have been completely made over to be rock songs and they have never sounded better. All three of these songs will do well to introduce these Smitty songs to fans that might not have listened to them before, including those who are too young to remember them when they were popular.
Unfortunately, the album hits a low note with the David Crowder Band cover of "Secret Ambition" which is amped up more than the original, but nowhere near enough to classify as an "ultimate music makeover." This is closer to a simple cover and while it does well at that, the aim of the album is not simple covers. Tiffany Arbuckle aka Plumb tackles "Pray for Me" and adds more of a dance feel to the song but its effectiveness falls somewhere between that of the first three songs on this album and the David Crowder Band track. Another weak track is "The Race is On," which is covered by Smitty's son, Ryan. Ryan's voice has the nasal sound that could be found in some of his Dad's albums, which becomes distracting and even annoying to many fans, who will skip this track.
The aim of this album is a very interesting one, to feature artists adding their own spin to classics from Michael W. Smith, but it could have been tweaked. The album would have been stronger if they had done more to focus on more of his popular songs, instead of songs like "Lamu" that only die-hard fans know. Producers also could have done more to make some of the tracks actual makeovers instead of sounding like your average covers.
3 tocks
Other coverage for this album
The Phantom Tollbooth 2005Reviewed by Brian A. SmithA question for the discerning music fan: If a label releases a tribute record to its own founder, and one of the songs is performed by that label founder's own son, is the project just a touch self-serving? Following the lead of the recent Charlie Peacock project, Rocketown has put together a tribute/re-interpretation album of Michael W. Smith's songs. Smith has always been a mixed bag to me,…The Phantom Tollbooth 2005Reviewed by Bob FelbergThe Ultimate Makeover: The Songs of Michael W. Smith is an album that features many of today's modern artists offering their version of classic MWS hits. I am not a big fan of tribute albums. I might get a track or two that I like, but I am a firm believer in the fact that the original music is always better. That is the way it is supposed to be, right? If it ain't broken, why try to fix it? And…
