Re-Recordings are Just Cover Songs
This isn't what I signed up for.
This is nominally an album review of the latest Mike + the Mechanics album but it dives into the issue of how bands re-release their old material in a new way and whether they're becoming their own cover bands.
One of the more difficult things for a band to do is to survive a significant lineup change, especially when that includes having to replace an iconic or distinctive vocalist. Mike + the Mechanics, the “solo” project by Genesis guitarist Michael Rutherford had the unenviable task of replacing two standout singers, Paul Carrack and Paul Young. More on that below.
There are multiple ways a band can approach the loss of a singer and there’s no one-size-fits-all method of doing it. It simply depends on the band and the situation. Bands can go out and find a sound-alike vocalist like Journey. They can essentially become a “2.0” band by maintaining the same basic style of music with a new singer — such as has been done in bands such as Iron Maiden, Foreigner, AC/DC, Arena, Spock’s Beard, and others. Some bands have reinvented themselves by evolving their sound like Marillion did after Steve Hogarth replaced Fish. Genesis at first simply changed singers from Peter Gabriel to Phil Collins and then later evolved stylistically and then — for one album — brought on Ray Wilson to replace Collins with the same basic music style it had when Collins left.
Moving forward is a necessary part of replacing a vocalist. So why are so many bands stepping backward? These days it seems a lot of bands with new vocalists are re-recording old songs with their newest lineups and that just seems like an unnecessary backward step to me. I recently heard such a release in the form of Out of the Blue by Mike + the Mechanics, which came out in April.
I can see the appeal of this from a band perspective. You want fans to come see the shows and this is a way to get them used to the new singer before they show up. It’s also an easy money grab. Some fans are completists by nature, and will snap up an album by a favorite band just to add it to their collection and show their support. Some older acts have been re-recording songs because they don’t control the rights to the originals. Re-recording them can be the only way to get them on the streaming services or to make an honest percentage on their sales.
But to me the drawbacks are not worth the risk. Some of the more casual fans will not realize the songs are re-recordings and buy the album mistakenly, which is a great way to piss them off. It’s studio time that could be devoted to recording new material. Longtime fans will be less likely to accept a re-recording and it will suffer to the original by comparison.
Getting back to Mike + the Mechanics and Out of the Blue, I was eager to hear new material and this album has three original tracks. The band sounds more or less like it always did in style and quality but with Andrew Roachford and Tim Howar on lead vocals. Both can sing, and I’m perfectly willing to give a band a chance with a new singer. The three new tracks are fine. They didn’t immediately grab me but that’s not too unusual. I’ll develop an opinion as I grab a few more listens.
But from there, to me the album takes a nose dive with the re-recordings of some of the band’s most beloved songs. Any or all of the re-recordings might work had I never heard the originals. The band makes an effort to change up the arrangements somewhat to keep things fresh and the production is excellent. The songs stand up and generally sound quite good. But…they’re imitations of the originals. They’re essentially cover songs. They’re just not as good to my ears, which of course have been biased by hearing the original recordings with Carrack and Young. But I have, on occasion, found a cover more compelling than an original — in fact, as blasphemous as this may be to some people, I much prefer Mike + the Mechanics' version of "I Believe (When I Fall in Love it Will Be Forever" to Stevie Wonder's original — so I know I’m open to it. It simply takes a lot of convincing.
The re-recorded songs on Out of the Blue do not convince me. These consist of:
"The Living Years"
"Beggar on a Beach of Gold"
"Get Up"
"Another Cup of Coffee"
"All I Need is a Miracle"
"Silent Running"
"Over My Shoulder"
"Word of Mouth"
If I spent five bucks to see a cover band play these songs and they sounded like they do on Out of the Blue, I’d probably be quite happy. But if I spent more than $50 to watch a band billed as Mike + the Mechanics play them, I’d be far less content.
Again, the songs are fine, but they just don’t measure up to the original versions with Carrack and Young — even with better production. It’s not a fair bar to expect Roachford and Howar to reach and it just comes off as disappointing to this longtime fan. If Rutherford is trying to appeal to a younger crowd that is unfamiliar with the originals, maybe this is a good business/career move. I can’t say. I’m willing to admit I might no longer be a musician’s target audience — even a musician older than me that I grew up listening to.
Of the re-recordings, the best thing I can say is they are listenable. The musicians play them well and the production is good. The songs are just as catchy as they’ve always been. But there is something missing: originality, Carrack, and Young. Sometimes there’s a small yet unnecessary lyric change and when you’re expecting “you may just be OK” and instead get “you just might be OK” it’s jarring.
“All I Need is a Miracle” is a particularly egregious error in my view. The original was one of the band’s biggest hits and it’s ingrained in the minds of everyone who listened to FM radio in the 1980s. The re-recording is a studio track recorded as if it were a live performance, complete with a call-and-answer section for an audience that isn’t there. So the backing vocals are the only response to the call of the lead vocal. As a result, it sounds too sterile and the gimmick falls completely flat. It probably works wonderfully at a live show but as a studio track it's just bad.
That doesn’t mean Out of the Blue is all bad or entirely disappointing. In addition to the new songs, there are some acoustic versions of previously released tracks, many of which I quite like. These include a terrific acoustic version of “The Best is Yet to Come,” which is a song the current lineup recorded on the 2017 release, Let Me Fly. I might like the acoustic version better, which shows that I’m open to a new recording over an older one, but when something has achieved iconic status, it’s much more difficult to overcome those imprinted mental/emotional bonds to the original.
As a music fan I’ve got a real hunger for new music, especially from artists that I’ve grown to love over time. It always excites me to see a new album is going to come out from a band I’m passionate about. But when it comes to a band I’ve loved for years, that excitement turns to ash when the new album either entirely or mostly consists of re-recordings. After all, no band lasts forever and it seems wasteful to me when they revisit old material rather than create something new.
What do you think? Are you into re-recordings? Is there value in them that I’m not seeing? Is there one you like better than the original?