Even Better than the Real Thing, Vol 2

The surprise huge success of last year’s EBTTRT album proved that, despite the continuing bootleg craze, there’s still a market for the gentle cover version, and that people are prepared to dig in their pockets for charity records. No shock that there is a second volume – this looks set to run and run – and no real musical shocks here either.
The format has remained the same: acts on Ray D’Arcy’s Today FM show cover a current pop tune in return for plugging their own stuff, and many of the artists from the firt instalment return here for a second bash. Yet with the surprise element gone, the effect is somehow less thrilling. Glen Hansard and Rosey look to repeat last year’s highlights with Britney and Beyoncé covers respectively, but don’t quite capture the spirit of the songs as they did before. Given that the beauty of most of these originals was their sheer pop energy, the sensitive singer-songwriter treatment leaves them sounding a bit flat. Even a song like ‘Dry Your Eyes’, which you would think would be a shoe-in, completely misses the point.
However, when the artist manages to really engage with his or her song the results can still be wonderful. Juliet Turner’s take on ‘A Winter’s Tale’ works better that her version of ‘Toxic’, itself no slouch. The Walls obviously take as much inspiration from Natasha Bedingfield’s ace ‘These Words’ as everybody else, while Paddy Casey’s teaming with the Dublin Gospel Choir is pure inspiration – especially on Blackstreet’s ‘No Diggity’. Not a perfect album, but then it’s not a perfect world, as those who would benefit from its purchase would testify.