Friday, February 22, 2008

That's what Michael should have done

If only Michael Jackson had followed the example of the Cowboy Junkies, Thirller 25 might not have been kept out of the charts. For the twentieth anniversary of The Trinity Sessions, the band have gone back to the same venue, and re-recorded each track. Pitchfork aren't impressed, mind:

The performance has been released on CD/DVD as Trinity Revisited, and it is certainly an odd product-- redundant to anyone familiar with The Trinity Sessions and unconvincing to everyone else. This isn't a reinterpretation, but a re-enactment. The Junkies run through songs almost note for note, and when they go off-script, as on the overly dramatic reading of "Sweet Jane", they display only their limitations.

Which seems a little unfair - if you see the album as an attempt to see what difference twenty years makes, even if the answer if "precious little", that doesn't entirely make it a failure. It's like the way scientists have to explain to arts graduates that experiments which don't deliver the expected results haven't failed, but worked.


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