Gordon Gano - Hitting The Ground

There's nothing on here to match the energy and verve of the PJ Harvey version of the title track (the song which caught my attention when it hit the airwaves a couple of years back), and, taken as a whole, it's really a fairly undistinguished collection. The concept is promising: the songs were written by Gordon Gano (of the Violent Femmes) and performed by an assortment of mostly famous pop music figures - Polly Jean, Lou Reed, John Cale, Frank Black, They Might Be Giants, and others...Each of the artists places their mark on the song they're given (Lou Reed drawls and says 'bitch', John Cale comes over all 'Ian Curtis and piano', Frank Black does some unhinged screaming, etc), and the record covers a fair amount of stylistic ground; the problem, however, is that the song-writing isn't, apart from on "Hitting The Ground" itself, particularly good...