It’s a disconcerting time in any band’s career when it’s reduced to re-recording old songs for new releases, be they live albums, acoustic albums or reimaginings of the band’s songs in different genres. What’s particularly troubling about Everclear’s In A Different Light is that the band redoes its old hits, but that’s it. Most songs stick to their original arrangements and tempos, occasionally substituting one instrument for another — some guitar parts are now done on organ, while some are just done on guitars with different effects.
Any Everclear song that anyone would care about is redone here (“Santa Monica,” “Everything to Everyone” and “Wonderful” to name a few). Many are noticeably different from the originals, but only in the most superficial and meaningless ways. It’ll lead even the staunchest Everclear fan to ask the same question over and over: What is the point of this album?
Even as a longtime Everclear apologist, it’s hard to defend the lack of vision on In a Different Light. There are a dozen ways this could’ve been better. The easiest would’ve been to not do it at all.
Comments: 1
miguelsalgado1111 wrote:
I used to quite like Everclear and own their greatest hits album and can hand on heart say this sounds very different. Thats not to say I prefer all of the new recordings, but that they each offer something quite different to the original.
The key to how Everclear have this work is that they have changed the tempos and sound of the songs for anyone familiar with the originals - they have been stripped back, and played in a sort of unplugged / acoustic way which makes them less bombastic but much more intimate. In this way the strengths of the lyrics and the vocals are emphasised, and a collection of hits taken from across the bands career are thereby brought into a cohesive whole. The band, which is now a five piece, put the songs to a more refined and contemporary music.
This album is very very good - not a single weak track and the band sound rejuvenated and relevant again. My favorites are Summerland, Fire Maple Song, Learning How to Smile, and the new track At The End of The Day.
on Oct 29th, 2009 at 4:18pm Report Abuse
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