This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to the Beatles' Rubber Soul

by

Various Artists

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The Beatles have and will always be my favourite band of all times but that's not to say that I have reservations about other people covering their songs. I like hearing the different versions and this album is suppose to be different...if you like the Fiery Furnaces (and I do) then you will enjoy their rendition of Norwegian Wood (like I do) and Sufjan Steven's version is also interesting as for all the other beautiful covers. This CD is not to be interpreted or to be classified under the same type (if there ever was one) as The Beatles' music. It's Indie..it's different...and it's beautiful all the same.

This Bird Has Flown is a great concept for a tribute album. Normally these collections are made up of various songs from an artist's catalog. But since each Beatles' album is a virtual masterpiece unto itself, this reworking of Rubber Soul is a great concept. Unfortunately not all the performances add up to great release. The problem when you have these tribute albums is that some artists are too reverential and play carbon copies of the songs they are covering and some go the opposite direction and totally revamp a song to make a point they are not doing the former. This isn't too say that when you cover a song to a tee that it isn't any good. The Donnas' "Drive My Car" is a faithful rendition, but their spunk and fire are fun. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals turn "Michelle" into a reggae song with disastrous results. The Fiery Furnaces droning version of "Norwegian Wood" is ponderous and numbingly bad. The best tracks on the album are a lean and mean version of "Nowhere Man" by Low and The Cowboys Junkies' powerful take on "Run For Your Life".