God help us

Today’s post­bag included a pack­age from Creep­ing Bent, a great label, home to fab­u­lous people, like Alan Vega & The Rev­o­lu­tion­ary Corps of Teenage Jesus, and The Secret Goldfish.

They’ve done a bad thing, though. It’s called ‘Ghost of Yesterday.’ It’s a mini-​album of Billie Hol­i­day covers. With vocals by Isobel Camp­bell. I don’t know what to say. Except that, maybe, some­one who can’t, in any com­monly under­stood sense of the term, sing isn’t doing her­self any favours encour­ag­ing a com­par­i­son with a lady who didn’t so much sing as rip your soul out with her voice.

To be fair, it’s a pretty good record if you don’t know the songs, thanks to some pretty stun­ning arrange­ments by Falkirk jazz legend Bill Wells and Ms. Camp­bell, but when you hear Hol­i­day in your head over the top, it’s enough to make you kick your stereo across the room. Good­ness, i seemed to have turned into a… purist. How vile.

Update: What do you know, Ms. Camp­bell just left B&S to… pursue her solo projects.

Posted at 11am on 30/05/02 by Jack Mottram to the music category.
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