Review: What We're Listening To
CD
Once More, Spandau Ballet
Warner Bros, £12.99
3/5
IN A NUTSHELL
The boys are a considerably older but their revamped classics songs are not a whole lot newer.
REVIEW
Why would you cover your own songs? I would understand if you were trying to reinterpret them to fit a particular genre but this doesn't seem to be the case with Spandau Ballets first album for twenty years, Once More.
The hotch potch of contemporary versions of the band's greatest hits are not terrible, but they are not consistently good either.
Thanks to the explosion in TV talent shows such as the X Factor, we are constantly bombarded with new interpretations of classic tracks and this is just what True reeks of.
The wedding disco stalwart is not different enough to make a statement but just close enough to the original to force you to trip over your tongue in a effort to sing along. It is also a bit of an epic, running just short of six minutes.
Signature tune and eighties revival show favourite Gold has been given a lounge music makeover and wouldn't be out of place in a seedy seaside night spot.
Through the Barricades is one track where the band have retained the goose bump inducing force of the original by stripping the track down to its base components then power into the choruses .
Spandau Ballet created a sound that was so distinctively their own that it seems they have really missed a trick by not relaunching themselves with a brave album of brand new tracks.
Why instead make a half hearted attempt to polish perfection?
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2 Comments
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Read The Wharf E-Edition
Dear Louisa,
Firstly, I assure you that Spandau Ballet never do anything half-heartedly. For your information, the album is predominately 'unplugged'. Excepting two new songs, there are no electric guitars or synthesizers featured. The aim was to rework some of our tunes, give them a different direction in some cases and show that we are still a contemporary band and not trapped in the 80s. We would love to work on an album of new songs but we simply do not have the time to write new material at the moment. There is a world tour to address. And so the 'Once More' CD is a one-off, intended to show Spandau Ballet in a different light.
Very best regards
Steve Norman, Spandau Ballet
Well if the band are 'busy' then that is a perfectly good reason to rehash the classics and make a few quid. If they fancy doing a pan pipes version of their classic hits in a spare few minutes I would buy it in an instant - that is if I am not busy bidding for tickets for the world tour.