Queensrÿche - Take Cover
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Free Music Notes for Take Cover
Free Music Review: Uninspired
Hit: 2 Stars
After Tribe I had decided that I was done with Queensryche. Since Promised Land the once-legendary progressive metal band has issued one lukewarm album after another, and I finally reached my limit. I was able to resist the temptation to check out Operation: Mindcrime II, but I have a weakness for cover songs, so when I ran across Take Cover in a cutout bin, I reluctantly added it to the day's purchases.
The idea of a Queensryche covers album is very intriguing. It would be a great chance to see the kind of music that influenced the band, which in turn was so influential to so many other bands. The problem with Take Cover is that it feels fundamentally dishonest. Oh, I don't doubt that Geoff Tate spends plenty of time listening to opera, Broadway, and Peter Gabriel, but there's no way in hell that stuff influenced Queensryche when they were starting out. Where are the Rush, Kansas, and Led Zeppelin songs? You know that those bands had a bigger influence on the band that released albums like Queensryche and The Warning than Crosby, Stills and Nash ever did. The only songs that felt like they actually deserved to be there are the Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath covers. The rest feel like they were selected to show off just how g*ddamn eclectic Geoff Tate thinks he is.
The band does a decent enough job on these songs, and their interpretations range from "by the book" to moderately interesting. They just don't seem very inspired by these songs, and for a covers album that's a fatal flaw. Compare this to Feedback, Rush's joyful romp through their classic rock roots and Take Cover's lack of energy and enthusiasm is that much more evident.
Ultimately, this wasn't worth making me break my Queensryche boycott. Welcome to the Machine and Neon Knights will be added to my iPod, but the album itself is destined for the trade-in stack.
Free Music Review: Very Eclectic, for True "Ryche" Fans Only
Hit: 2 Stars
My "take" on Take Cover is that it is certainly diverse and eclectic, as many have stated, but that is a mixed blessing. The band displays great imagination; this is obviously out of the box thinking (pardon that over-used cliché). Again, as others have bemoaned, I would like to have heard more classic metal. Is this really representative of Queensryche's influences or favorite songs as most cover albums are, or is this a risk-taking experiment purposely designed to be unique and eccentric?
As for the songs themselves, I enjoyed Neon Knights; I'd like to hear them play more like this one. Welcome to the Machine seems an obvious choice, and I liked it. I was not familiar with Heaven on their Minds before, but I thought it worked very well, an unusual but successful choice. Innuendo was interesting; I was familiar with it because I'm a life-long Queen fan. They didn't exactly nail it, but I give them kudos for the effort. Some cuts, like Synchronicity II do not differ too much from the originals, so I don't see the point. Some others, like For What It's Worth, are boring relics of the Woodstock era. I'll admit this arrangement is superior, but why do it? "Bullet" is really too long; is all 10:26 really necessary? As for the "social commentary," Geoff might want to consider shutting up and singing ala the Dixie Chicks.
As for the bottom line: will you enjoy listening? Answer: Only here and there. This is uneven and erratic so only the most ardent Queensryche fan will enjoy every minute of this CD, but any rock fan will enjoy some of it. I think the band peaked artistically with Operation: Mindcrime and commercially with Empire. Since then they've been trying to progress or recreate past performances without much success.
Free Music Review: Sad.
Hit: 2 Stars
It's sad to me that a gifted band such as Queensryche had to resort to re-doing COVER SONGS to release an album. I do own the album, as well as ALL of Queensryche's CDs, but this attempt to put out a CD has faltered. Do NOT purchase this album.........make one of my favorite bands of all time make THEIR OWN MUSIC. It's a sad day for this Queensryche fan!!!Free Music Review: poor production
Hit: 2 Stars
As a long time queensryche fan, it pains me to say this band has just "lost it". The production of this cd is horrible. I played it twice and put it away. These guys need to find a doc mcgee or mutt lange , someone that will make them work again.
I love this band, but this cd just doesn't cut it!
Free Music Review: ugh...
Hit: 1 Stars
This is just slightly better than extremely bad (saved by two of the songs). By the songs they chose, I really felt... "wow... this will really be interesting and they are songs, by rights, that Queensryche would and should do well with". Sadly, I find it falls very flat and some of the songs are just downright embarrassingly bad.
Queensryche doing Pink Floyd would seemingly be a match made in heaven. It is not... not even close. The bass is prevalent in a way that works against the song rather than with it. Most of the vocals (this is across all the songs) just sound heartless and weak and rushed and lacking in good effects. I think the production doesn't sound great on most of the music either. The whole thing sounds like it was made on a budget and done very quickly with little emphasis on quality. By far the best sounding song on the CD is the live song... which tells alot about the studio work, which is supposed to sound significantly better than a live recording.
Their version of For The Love Of Money is by far the worst thing on this CD and would rival some of the worst covers I have ever heard. Imagine Geoff Tate trying to do a Vanilla Ice song complete with the dance moves... even THAT couldn't be more awkward than this FTLOM cover is. What's worse, clearly they arent a fan of their own genre... this song has been done before and infinitely better by the Bullet Boys... WHY would you put out such a poor version to be compared with that one that knocked the song out of the park? Synchronicity II, the song I most looked forward to on this CD, is thankfully not as bad as most of the rest... but still, it is not a very good cover of a great song. In fact, I think the fact that the song is so good is what makes it good.... but, the stark contrast between Sting's delivery and Tate's is very noticeable. Tate almost seems bored with what they are doing on the album... and it sounds like they did one vocal take and said... "good enough"... it doesn't sound thick and layered as it should have been. Tate is a much better singer than comes across on this entire album. Actually, the best song on this whole CD is probably the Opera song Odissea where he does show off some of his vocal chops... it reminds me of a lighter Rammstein slow song (but, again, Rammstein does a better job of this kind of sound).
Queensryche has been very disappointing to me in the last decade... other than the stellar Mindcrime At The Moore DVD, just about everything else has not lived up to their past or the expectations and this album is among the worst of that the mostly bad recent trend of their last decade.
Welcome To The Machine - D... not a good cover, and too many stylistic changes for the worse compared to the original. The vocals do not even remind you much of the original.
Heaven On My Minds - C... don't know the original... this one is just there.
Almost Cut My Hair - D... again, just not good... sounds awkward to me.
For What Its Worth - F... easily the worst rendition I have ever heard of this song which has been covered fairly often. Their changes again are too severe and definitely for the worst. The vocals are really bad.
For The Love of Money - F-... possibly the worst cover song I have ever heard. It's like a stereotypical lesson in why white guys cant groove.
Innuendo - D... again, doesn't do the song any justice. But, I can say honestly that I never cared for the original... no hook... and this attempt at being epic failed for Queen just as much as it fails for Queensryche.
Neon Knights - C... forgettable.
Synchronicity II - B-... it only scores that high because the SONG is that good on its own... but, should have been an A with even average delivery... the vocals are the main problem... extremely weak and heartless... I don't even think Tate sings the right words in key spots and the noisy extended guitar "non-solo" after Tate trots out the "Scottish Loch" lyric incorrectly was really a weak change.
Red Rain... B-... its ok again... but the vocals... like most feel like a situation where you tell someone to sing a song they have heard once or twice... and you record their first attempt without giving them much time to learn the song.... thus, it just comes out awkward.
Odissea... A-... I have nothing to compare this against... but here is the only song on this CD where Tate's vocals truly shine.
Bullet the Blue Sky... A- easily the best sounding cover on the album... not perfect, but not as extremely awkward as most of the rest. It actually has some edge to it that the rest lack.
HONESTLY, bad karaoke often does songs better than most of these renditions. Tate hits the notes... but... just doesn't sing hardly anything properly... its like he decided, I will do everything differently rather than like the original. There is a reason the original singer didn't sing most of these like Tate has... because its just not good that way!
This is an album where I just have to recommend people preview the songs very seriously before buying. Some will like it, some wont, and I guarantee some will hate it, like I do. I wish I previewed, I would have saved myself $15! For me, it is among the worst cover albums I have ever heard by any band... and I really didn't expect that even with Queensryche's less than stellar original work in the last 12 years. Honestly, I felt they would be a good cover band and I was wrong. Now I am thinking Geoff Tate and co are too cerebral and eccentric to do covers... they try to tinker too much and not with good ideas. You won't believe it from this review, but I really wanted to like this CD.