May I share one of my pet hates?
Don't worry. It will leave me a line or two to record some thoughts on a top album. In fact, it should help explain its appeal ...
Cover versions that suck are surely pointless. These patchy retreads have become more prevalent in the age of the digital sample, where hooks pillaged from classic cuts are coupled with reworked lyrics to give a song a contemporary spin. All the more galling is the sale of this freshly butchered "new" product to a generation oblivious to its lineage.
This aversion to clumsy covers gripped me firmly in 1996 when the Fugees released Killing Me Softly, a hip-hop version of Roberta Flack's Grammy-winning single from the 1973 album of the same name. It could have been worse - the band had originally wanted to rewrite this poignant ode to the power of song, turning it into a treatise on poverty and inner-city pressure entitled Killing Him Softly. Ugh!
Now I have no beef with covers, per se. If an artist can find a meaningful way to frame a great song, all power to them. Sid Vicious' My Way is a top track. But Lauryn Hill and her associates missed the point with this one.
If they had wanted to doff their caps to Flack, a classically trained pianist and singer, the Fugees should have considered the smooth, simple and direct delivery of her vocals. She is relating her story as she might share a secret with a friend, not running up and down the scales as if warming up for the vocal Olympics.
So ... Killing Me Softly, the album. A lesson in restraint and a finely balanced mix of soul, jazz and gospel from one of the most successful artists of the '70s. It even includes a couple of nicely executed covers: Janis Ian's Jesse and Leonard Cohen's Suzanne.
Enjoy your cornflakes.
