Rod Stewart, the aging hack, who used to be real good at one time, is now going beyond blasphemy by recording an album of soul remakes from Motown and Stax. This should scare the shit out of you, if you care at all about the hallowed nature of those songs. I mean, look at what Stewart did to the standards. Sure, 19 million tuneless, brain dead motherfuckers bought those shitty albums, but he must be stopped. He's trying to destroy black music the way Michael Bolton tried in the 90s.

God, stop this man before the Space, Time Continuim cracks open and we all die horrible deaths.

Rod, nooooo.

too late, it's already out

Errant, save me.

2freaky4church1 said:

Rod's a very minor daemon. Just wait til the hadron collider sucks your face off cell by cell.

I bought this crap only because I wanted to hear the Stevie and the Jennifer Hudson track. The album is as bad as I expected. I really like Rod and don't mind him doing remakes. After all, some of his big hits were remakes. All I can say is don't waste your money.

I can trump that. You'll be RUNNING to buy Rod's album when you hear Barry Manilow's album of 80's hits.

I loves me some Manilow, but he's riding the coat tail of retro popularity like Rod is doing (Donnie Osmond started doing the same thing, I think). Manilow is taking a decade at a time and destroying.....I mean, remaking the songs. 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. He also did a Sinatra album, a Big Band album, and he rerecorded some of his own music used in the Copacobana Broadway musical, as well as one other canceled musical with his music (but wasn't based on it). I mean, when you're covering your own shit like that. Yeeeeesh.

Here's a cut and paste of the 80's track list:
1. "Islands in the Stream" (Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton cover) (Bee Gees) – 4:06
* Performed by Barry Manilow & Reba McEntire
2. "Open Arms" (Journey cover) (Steve Perry & Jonathan Cain) – 3:39
3. "Never Gonna Give You Up" (Rick Astley cover) (Stock Aitken Waterman) – 2:54
4. "Have I Told You Lately" (Van Morrison cover) – 4:03
5. "I Just Called to Say I Love You" (Stevie Wonder cover) – 4:05
6. "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" (Phil Collins cover) – 3:11
7. "Careless Whisper" (Wham! cover) (George Michael & Andrew Ridgeley) – 3:59
8. "Right Here Waiting" (Richard Marx cover) – 3:38
9. "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" (Christopher Cross cover) (Christopher Cross; Burt Bacharach; Carole Bayer Sager; Peter Allen) – 3:46
10. "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" (Chicago cover) (Peter Cetera & David Foster) – 4:04
* Performed by Barry Manilow & Chicago
11. "Time After Time" (Cyndi Lauper cover) (Cyndi Lauper & Rob Hyman) – 4:06
12. "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" (Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes cover) (Franke Previte, John DeNicola, Donald Markowitz) – 3:55

Most of them are just.....HORRID!!! It almost sounds like a Weird Al album, or Richard Cheese.

I feel sad for Rod Stewart it's just not like it used to be.
Rod used to have good songs in the 70's and 80's but now, Im said it
his getting old. The 70's sound Meggie mae or the 80's sounds of Babyjane
it's gone. But you can still always go back to the old C.D's.

His voice is very limited now. Saw him live not long ago with my mum. I find it interesting how there's this polar divide between his fans about what material of his they like. I enjoy a lot of his 70's material, a handful of songs from the 80's even less from the 90's... I don't think he's lost his ears I just don't think he cares much about the albums he puts out and hasn't for a long while.

rainman1985 said:

The odd thing about that is that he had something on his vocal cords, and he was losing a larger range of his voice. However, he went to surgery, got it corrected, and initially gained a lot of his old voice - the raspiness, the growl, back again. I think it's just his material that isn't giving him the challenge that he used to have.

But I also understand that as a singer gets older, they lose some lower and higher ranges. Prince has, MJ lost some, Mariah has, Whitney certainly has lost a lot of her tone.

ernestsewell said:

That's gonna be the RickRoll from hell

The last good album he had was the one with "Infatuation" and "Some Guys Have All The Luck". After that, he lost his damn mind and went adult contemporary. It's hard to believe that it's the same man that made great stuff like "Passion", "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy", "Tonight I'm Yours", "Young Turks", "Hot Legs", "Insane", "Dirty Weekend", "Gimme Wings", etc.

vainandy said:

He did a rock album in the late 90s when he was trying to regain his rock sound, but it tanked big time. He even recorded a version of Prince's "Peach" that was issued as a b-side on one of the singles from that album.

ernestsewell said:

Tell me you're joking.....



TELL ME YOU'RE JOKING!!!!!

Here are a few of the songs from the album:

bboy87 said:

It's terribly real, unfortunately. "Open Arms" is horrible too. They ALL are.

Two of Rod's heroes were Sam Cooke and David Ruffin so it makes sense but Rod's vocal range is different now.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...4PXMCCTMwM

http://www.youtube.com/wa...F9NJVMmJTw

What is up with the massive amounts of "safe" cover albums? I mean, I enjoy a good cover as much as the next guy, even if they're safe and unimaginative, but damn.

Rod did say the record company nixed a lot of songs that he wanted to do. You know the record bizz: Safety is job one. Money is the shit--fuck art.

2freaky4church1 said:

It's unfair comparing him to Michael Bolton, yeah some of his repertoire nowadays surely is bland commercial tosh but he's sung some good stuff in his time. The Faces' through to his solo records of the mid 70's were all solid as you imply and they plundered black music. I do hear ya though, this ain't an album I'll be wanting to hear.


An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down is class btw.

This is all a bit rich comin' from a Elton John admirer.
[Edited 11/2/09 17:30pm]

albums like these are so completely useless. Seal's "Soul" album was horrible, soulless and just overly-polished product. I don't mind cover projects at all, but at least do some really interesting songs and not the same tracks already done a zillion times... it just turns into karaoke.

They all belong in Vegas. Can't imagine listening to that Barry album though.

Yikes.

2freaky4church1 said:

japanrocks said:

Yep, performing in front of blue-haired old ladies. Rod, come back to us.

someone needs to put Rick Rubin on his ass.

COMMON GUYS !! HE WROTE PEACH for PRINCE !!!

mayb hes just getting out what he feels inside .. for better or worse .. im sure the mans integrity is there. Noones perfect

I am sick of covers albums! It's lazy and unchallenging and let's face it,the remakes are NEVER as good as the original.Rod Stewart is a talented guy.It's a shame that he can't find some decent NEW songs to sing.

SoulAlive said:

Rod is indeed a very talented guy. He has a fantastic repertoire of music and I know he is a huge fan of the soul singers who's music he loves to record. Having said that, I agree that he needs some new, updated songs to sing. He has a very unique voice and sounds great singing many different genre's but I would like to hear something original from Rod again.

Reading ernest's post I had to go to youtube...

I can't get over the fact that Barry had to slaughter my sweet Rick like that


http://www.youtube.com/wa...MCDQZEBAQc



[Edited 11/4/09 10:55am]