Been a long time since triple j was my listening staple (the last vestige fell away a few months ago when I realised that even having it as my morning clock radio wakeup station was a bridge too far - in a further sign that I'm getting old, I started finding the announcers too loud, too braying, and shifted to triple r instead), but it was Sarah Blasko's lovely take on "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road", heard post-play in the Malthouse bar as they called last drinks, that got me to buy this.
With a generalist covers compilation like this, there are some that you want to listen to because of the song, others because of the artist, perhaps a handful because of the particular combination. Here, a few of my favourite songs are in line ("Wide Open Road", done well by the Panics; "There She Goes", ploddingly and unfortunately covered by the Wombats; "Joga" given a dull do-over by Hermitude; "Look at Miss Ohio", faithfully but somewhat more somberly, and overall effectively, done by the Kill Devil Hills); the highlights overall, along with Blasko's version of the Elton John classic, are a typically twee yet urgent take by Tegan and Sara on "Dancing in the Dark" (reminding me what a classic that song is), Bob Evans' countrified spin on Lily Allen's "Not Fair", Evermore's melancholy cover of Little Birdy's "Relapse", and Little Birdy themselves with a straight-up but enjoyably sprightly version of "These Boots Were Made For Walking".
With a generalist covers compilation like this, there are some that you want to listen to because of the song, others because of the artist, perhaps a handful because of the particular combination. Here, a few of my favourite songs are in line ("Wide Open Road", done well by the Panics; "There She Goes", ploddingly and unfortunately covered by the Wombats; "Joga" given a dull do-over by Hermitude; "Look at Miss Ohio", faithfully but somewhat more somberly, and overall effectively, done by the Kill Devil Hills); the highlights overall, along with Blasko's version of the Elton John classic, are a typically twee yet urgent take by Tegan and Sara on "Dancing in the Dark" (reminding me what a classic that song is), Bob Evans' countrified spin on Lily Allen's "Not Fair", Evermore's melancholy cover of Little Birdy's "Relapse", and Little Birdy themselves with a straight-up but enjoyably sprightly version of "These Boots Were Made For Walking".
