Triple J - Like A Version Five (2009)

Review By Ben Vernel

Triple J's fifth "Like A Version" release features twenty tracks taken from the eponymous Morning Show segment; twenty different, new renditions of songs close to the performers' hearts. Featuring both Australian and international artists, the compilation CD and accompanying DVD showcase a wide variety of songs made-over in new ways.

Though, largely, those ways amount to simple acoustic guitar / vocal arrangements...

The compilation is kicked off by The Kooks' cover of MGMT's Kids. Not a bad start. The boys successfully translate the depth of the electronica-original to a couple of guitars, and an amazing vocal performance takes this up to the level of "worth listening to as a standalone song".

Bob Evans' cover of Lily Allen's Not Fair isn't bad, but it isn't fantastic, either. Not quite up to the same level of quality as the preceding track, it sits firmly in the category of 'just slightly better than a novelty cover'. This isn't to denigrate the performance itself, though; Evans plays well and his voice is servicable. There just isn't really anything about this cover version that makes me want to listen to it over the original.

Ben Harper's impassioned Under Pressure is, again, well-performed (vocally, at least) but doesn't come close to the original. As I listened, all I could think was 'I think I'll listen to the real version after this'.

And that is the essential problem with cover compilations. Unless the covers are brilliant – and I mean Jimi Hendrix-covering-Bob Dylan brilliant – then they're nothing but indulgent exercises in utter pointlessness.

There isn't a technically 'bad' song on this compilation. But there aren't any that make this album worth paying actual real-life money for, either.

The better examples (Liam Finn's cover of Neil Young's Old Man, the aforementioned Kooks cover) simply remind you of the originals and the worse ones (The Drones' cover of M.A.S.H. theme Suicide Is Painless, Tiki Taane's version of Use Somebody) simply lead to a tap of the 'skip' button.

The DVD features three songs not included on the CD (Danananananananakroyd's terribly obnoxious cover of Whip It, Mia Dyson's version of The Magic Moment and Cat Empire doing Sunny Afternoon) but I found the videos awkward and unnecessary.

I'd suggest getting hold of The Kooks' version of Kids if you can, but otherwise I find it hard to recommend this compilation.

RATING: 2.5 out of 5

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