 Camper Van Beethoven I can't say I'll listen to this record more than twice, but I have to say, I'm surprised it isn't complete shite. Camper Van Beethoven recorded this in '87 seemingly out of boredom while various factors prevented the band from doing any real recording. Their solution, in the spirit of ambition and ambivalence that characterized pretty much everything they did: re-record Fleetwood Mac's Tusk in its entirety, on 4-track. It's audacious, and while you'd expect it to be totally half-assed, the knocked-out raggedness of the album isn't too far off from Camper's full-fledged albums. More dubious is the fact that this recording suddenly appeared in '02 and it's not clear just how much of it was recorded and/or polished off recently. Gotta give these guys props for being into Tusk at that album's nadir of coolness, but it's a bit suspect that they've released it now that it tends to get namechecked every five minutes in the indie press. All that aside, the record is surprisingly good, the consistent weak point being the snidely underachieving vocals, which attempt and fail to capture any of the magic of the Mac's originals. Though the band obviously loves Tusk, the altie speak-sing approach smacks of irony, like they're not totally sure they want to admit they actually like these songs. It's too bad; but then, there's only so much they were going to be able to do on a 4-track in the first place, and trying to shine could only have proved embarrassing. The record this reminds me most of is Sonic Youth's Ciccone Youth album, which is my favorite thing by that band. It's overall a nice mesh of subversive indie sensibility with corporate-label slavishness. The attitude is cool, the ramshackle performances are somehow purposeful, and the fact that they did it at all is admirable. A few of these tracks might make a mix-disc or two: "Think About Me" is great, ""Tusk" is gonzo, "Walk a Thin Line" is surprisingly touching. Some tracks, like "Storms," deserved better, but what can you do … I guess it's better than a various-artist tribute record that would dole such a song out to Sheryl Crow. In the end, though, there's some truth to the off-the-cuff remark that caps the album, in which one of the players declares that this was a "bad idea."
Review by Son of La Fée |