Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity

• Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity List
• Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity Album
• Third Man Records

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Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity; Ad1066 FrEE Java; Color Finesse 3 Download Mac; Gamefisher 61352; Advent Wireless Keyboard K312 Drivers. Get all the lyrics to songs on Score! 20 Years of Merge Records: The Covers! And join the Genius community of music scholars to learn the meaning behind the lyrics.

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Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity List

• Rock/Alternative
• 2009

Reviewed by Lee Zimmerman

n the course of delivering their wares to an eager public, some record labels have actually achieved a fame and notoriety equal to, or sometimes even greater than, their artists. In the ‘60s, one such entity was Immediate, a label that carved an indelible niche via the best the Brits had to offer, artists that included the Small Faces, Chris Farlowe and even Fleetwood Mac at an early juncture. Apple Records became one of the first examples of an artist-owned record company, boasting not only the Beatles, but Badfinger, James Taylor, Jackie Lomax and Mary Hopkins. Other entrepreneurial endeavors, from Motown and Stax to Sire and Atlantic, secured such distinctive identities that their contributions to the musical mainstream earned them their own individual chapters in the precipitous tale of pop’s ongoing evolution.

With the music business’ ongoing decline, and its shift from record stores to cyberspace sales, smaller labels have taken the lead in advancing the agenda and fostering the up-and-coming artists that are shaping the sounds and setting the trends for the new millennium. It’s in that spirit that Merge Records has been able to create an environment that nurtures both artistic expression and adventurous initiatives. Founded in 1989 by musicians Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, and based in Durham, North Carolina, it was initially a vehicle to release music by their band, Superchunk, although it gradually developed an expansive roster of other like-minded artists. Twenty years on, the company has ample reason to celebrate, having firmly entrenched itself in the indie firmament by fostering such talent as the Arcade Fire, Conor Oberst, Spoon, M Ward, Crooked Fingers, the Clean, Lambchop, Robert Pollard and of course, McCaughan’s other musical manifestations.

Some, but not all, of these artists are represented on Score!, a creative compilation that collects 20 songs originally recorded by many of the label’s mainstays and covered by outside artists who are clearly ardent admirers. For the novice, it’s an ample introduction to Merge’s songbook, although with a well-heeled cast tending to the musical duties, the likes of which include the Shins, Apples in Stereo, Bright Eyes, Ryan Adams and Broken Social Scene, it’s as much about the lineup as it is about any tuneful trajectory. Consequently, we find St. Vincent and the National turning Crooked Fingers’ 'Sleep All Summer' into a sullen duet that recalls Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, and Bright Eyes’ take on the Magnetic Fields’ 'Papa Was a Rodeo' a swaying serenade loaded with pop appeal. Laura Cantrell’s wistful version of Lambchop’s 'Cowboy on the Moon' is, in itself, a remarkable revelation, an exercise in Americana graced with unabashed sentiment. Barbara Manning’s buoyant cover of Portastatic’s 'Through with People,' Tracey Thorn and Jens Lekman’s mellow, meandering 'Yeah! Oh, Yeah' (another original entry by Magnetic Fields), and the New Pornaographers’ rousing rendition of the Rock*A*Teens’ 'Don’t Destroy This Night' further up the ante in terms of the songs’ durability factor while also affirming the fact that Merge’s legacy is sumptuous indeed.

Normally, self-congratulatory displays wind up as equally self-serving and somewhat disingenuous. Not so with Score! If Merge manages another 20 years as prodigious as their first, their legacy will deserve to be as revered as their records.

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In what is a pretty cool project in its concept, Merge put out its 20th anniversary box set with this, a compilation of covers, as a bonus. Five years ago, their Old Enough to Know Better: 15 Years of Merge Records was a well-stocked 3CD collection, so this ambitious undertaking was highly anticipated. Yet, this SCORE! missed the mark.

The album feels a little like a love letter to Mac McCaughan (of Superchunk and Portastatic) as 25% of the songs are covers of his work. Unless you are already a diehard Superchunk fan, this is not going to endear you—the offerings by Death Cab for Cutie, Ryan Adams and Les Savy Fav are frustrating to listen to.

Score 20 Years Of Merge Records The Covers Rarity Album

The programmed drum machine on Okkervil River’s “All You Little Suckers” is really distracting and has a cheesy junior-high hip hop quality to it. Then again, East River Pipe, the auteurs of the original are remembered for a song so lovingly titled “Shiny, Shiny Pimpmobile.” Maybe the inanity is a throwback joke to which some people are not privy.

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By far the biggest disappointment on the record is the absolutely dreadful cover of Arcade Fire’s “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”. Presumably, if you’re a rabid fan of the extremely lo-fi Times New Viking, this might be a treat for you, but to this relative newcomer, it was unpalatable in its distorted, unmelodic and generally tinny expression of what was originally a fairly epic, well-orchestrated, and above all, well-mixed tune. There are times when songs should not be covered. This is one of those times.

Several tunes are good turnouts: the Ted Leo & the Pharmacists version of Bob Pollard’s “The Numbered Head” is begging to be included in the next Guitar Hero and is altogether a good meeting of artists. Bill Callahan (Smog) strongly commands Versus’ “Santa Maria” and there’s some well-layered piano in the background that adds a certain something. Similarly, The Mountain Goats’ “Drug Life”, The New Pornographers’ “Don’t Destroy This Night” and Laura Cantrell’s “Cowboy on the Moon” are all decent offerings.

The biggest gem on the album seems to be the Tracey Thorn (of Everything but the Girl fame) and Jens Lekman version of The Magnetic Fields’ “Yeah! Oh Yeah!” Thorn’s voice was a welcome surprise; it’s been absent from the scene since her solo record in 2007. Lekman and Thorn seem to blend well together; it would be nice to hear more collaborations between these two (or, rather, is it just the nature of the Magnetic Fields’ love song?).

Merge Records should be commended for the cleverness of SCORE!, curated by their own artists, and especially for the charitable proceeds that it will generate. If you’re an outsider to Merge, there are likely enough tunes on the album to please you, but nothing remarkable. If you’re a diehard Merge fan, then this album (and presumably, the 14 CD box set) is for you.