VARIOUS ARTISTS
Parallel Lives (A Tribute To Blondie) (Dressed To Kill)
Reviewed by Bill Holmes

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Amazing what one can find while mindlessly trolling record bins. Blondie sneaked a live record out there last year, so I rummaged through their section thinking that perhaps their "comeback follow-up" CD might have sailed under my radar. Instead, I found yet another tribute record (Platinum Girl, from Cleopatra, was reviewed in the April issue). And, being the insatiable tribute fanatic, I bought it even though I didn't recognize a single artist on the roster.

I remember buying a cassette of a collection of hits by Herman's Hermits on a small European label. I popped it into the car deck on the way home, and two songs in got an uneasy feeling - the songs sounded pretty close, but there were subtle nuances that were not ringing true. "Something Good" was a little too fast, the tone of the strummed chords on "Mrs. Brown" were missing the occasional note…oh god, it's bogus! These were undoubtedly talented mimics, perhaps even the Herman-less Hermits re-recording their catalogue (I saw the Hermanless Hermits play a club, but let's not go there right now). To the non-initiated, these could pass as the originals, but I grew up on those singles, so why would I want this?

Now tribute records are not quite the same thing - it's supposed to be a group of bands taking a whack at the artist's catalogue, and the good ones have mostly interpretations and a couple of mime jobs. Parallel Lives is wall-to-wall mimicry. In fact, if it were to come out that these are Debbie Harry scratch vocals over unreleased instrumental takes, I would not be completely dumfounded. Each band has a breathy/ballsy vocal and the appropriate punchy rhythms, and only moments like the extremely Cockney background vocals on Dork's "Go Away" (gow-ah-whyyyyy…") bring me back to reality. However, my search for band info was fruitless - the booklet is as sparse as a cheap reissue - art on the front, track list on the back, and two blank pages inside. A quick search of the label's website (www.dressed2kill.co.uk) was no help either. There are twenty covers, from "Denis" to "Maria", from performers like Razzers, Up The Duff and Microdaft. For all I know, they are the same band under twenty names.

I guess your appreciation of this CD largely depends upon you expectations in a tribute comp. If you're looking for emotional, interpretive versions of familiar songs, keep walking. But if you enjoy that bar band on the corner who play the songs just like the record, this is a lot cheaper than a Blondie record.

© 2000 - Bill Holmes