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Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam
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Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam
Current price: $14.99
Barnes and Noble
Fire & Skill: The Songs of the Jam
Current price: $14.99
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accomplishes what few compilations manage to pull off -- capturing the spirit of the band that it pays tribute to. From the tender boyish vulnerability shown, ironically, by
's
on
to the bare-bones punk energy of
this collection shows
's versatility and style, as well as
's sharp, skillful songwriting.
and
provide great bookends to the album with their covers of
The first of the two songs is given lush, neo-psychedelic instrumentation that compliments the lolling drone that
uses to deliver
's dark lyrics. It also seems that no song could be a better choice for
to cover than
which might have been an arc of fantasy for
when he wrote it near the beginning of
's career but sounds remarkably similar to the real tale of
' meteoric rise to rock superstardom and fragile teetering at its apex. This is no surprise: Few bands share the unique combination of pub-bred working-class zeitgeist and reverence for the music of a previous generation the way that
do, even though their music might share little stylistically.
's unique style is what makes this compilation work so well, however.
's songs, for all of their lyrical depth and clever hooks, remained amazingly straightforward. So a band like
can deliver a serpentine cover of
and have it retain the power of the original without exercising the kind of pale parroting that many cover songs engage in. Some songs, like the
' version of
wander even farther afield, stripping the original down to its bare bones and reinventing it from the ground up (in this case as a quirky organ-infused funk-hip-hop number with the little girl vocals of
.) Some of the best numbers, though, stay pretty close to the spirit of the original like
as performed by British indie rock stars
.
seems to be in the right spirit with their laid-back rendition of
but
seems a bit out of his element with his version of
which, unfortunately sticks a little to close to the original, undermining his usual stylish nuances. A ghost track,
performed by
provides a delicate, bittersweet ending to it all. ~ Stacia Proefrock