Easy Star All-Stars
Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band
It takes some real balls to re-imagine one of the most imaginative albums of all time. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album was the first of its kind – a concept album filled with complex song structures, excellent writing and fantastic imagery. It is a timeless classic that will remain forever untouchable. That being said, if you are going to attempt to cover this hallowed piece of work, you have one of two options: either stay as close to the source material as possible and do your best to recreate it, or simply have the incredible artistic vision it takes to make the material your own. The Easy Dub-All Stars do neither of these two things. The result is an album that sounds like a cheesy recording of a cruise ship reggae cover band – watered down reggae and a poor rendition of a Beatles classic.
There are a few tracks that perked up my ears however. The extended dub mix of “Fixing A Hole” is a fleeting glimpse at what a reggae rendition of Sgt. Pepper could have been. Max Romeo manages to turn a very unfunky song into a deep island-leaning groove. The same can’t be said for “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” which, like most of the tracks on the album, had me itching to listen to the original. Oddly enough, the only other track that manages to hit the target is Michael and Menny Rose’s interpretation of Pepper’s epic finale, “A Day In the Life.” This being one of my favorite Beatles records, I was shocked to find that I was actually feeling the cover version.
All in all, the folks at Easy Star were in way over their heads with this one. I can’t even say that it was a solid attempt. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go throw on the original.
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