Young Soul Rebels – I Got Soul
Well, it is nearly 20 years since Band Aid II…
[Video][Website]
[4.40]
Pete Baran: Who’d have thought, after thirty years, Kevin Rowland’s search would be over in such a lacklustre way?
[2]
Chuck Eddy: “Perhaps it will clear something up to specify that this is not a soul record. It is a weird record.” — Robert Christgau, Consumer Guide review of Searching For The Young Soul Rebels by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, 1980.
[4]
Anthony Miccio: The British Eyed Peas pay tribute to the visionary poetry of Brandon Flowers. Though I hope the Glee cast doesn’t bring this cheesebomb stateside, I also know their energy would improve it.
[5]
Iain Mew: “For peace in the world I’m a big supporter” — really going out on a limb there! I guess when you’re rebuilding a song around a line as stupid as this one there’s no point trying too hard. Everyone involved sounds good enough and enough like they’re having a good enough time that it’s enjoyable enough for a go or two though.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: Inconsequential and embarrassing, but rather rousing with it — a bunch of people with forced smiles are a better fit for the titular (and still horrendous) line than the overly earnest Brandon Flowers ever was.
[6]
Ian Mathers: Given my feelings about this kind of charity clusterfuck (on a musical level, I mean) and the source material, especially the section that’s the bulk of the excerpt here, I’m amazed to find that I like this quite a bit more than the Killers’ original. The sentiments taken from “All These Things That I’ve Done” fit what War Child is trying to get across, the original lyrics are fairly well done, the various styles represented blend together well, and the whole thing is properly rousing. It’s so nice to have charity records you can actually get behind.
[7]
Martin Kavka: Chipmunk’s verse ends with “No kids should die in a war/I will fight in the eyes of the Lord.” I assume that this means that fighting for a political cause (in God’s name) is opposed to fighting war. But won’t there come a point in time when the cause requires you to pick up weapons, even in self-defense? And doesn’t that risk placing children in a warzone, and killing their parents — precisely those things that Warchild wants to stop?
[4]
Doug Robertson: Well the intentions are good, so they can have a couple of points for that but the end result is just a bit of a mess, with some awkward lyrical clichés and sentiments and a tendency to throw everything into the pot, regardless of how well the ingredients will mix. As these things go, it’s better than most, but if you want to support the cause, you should probably do so without going to the trouble of downloading this.
[5]
Anthony Easton: Slightly less embarrassing than “Tears are Not Enough” or “We are the World”.
[3]
Michaelangelo Matos: Nobody brings their A game to a benefit record, do they?
[3]