V/A Idle Edsel’s New York Dolls Tribute, Vol. 1 LP
A friend of mine in high school said that if your band covers another band, your version needs to either improve on the original, or add something that makes it your own, and that always stuck with me. Now I suppose a tribute album is something distinctly separate from just a bunch of covers, but I can’t escape the musings of that high school kid while listening to this NEW YORK DOLLS tribute. Yes, these are for sure competent covers, and the bands involved presumably like-to-love the source material. But beyond curiosity, or perhaps a completist’s mad desire, there’s really nothing new or interesting to discover here. None of these songs are better than the originals (obviously), and none of them really do anything to make their version memorable. Again, these are perfectly serviceable versions of amazing songs, but ten out of ten times, I’m opting for the RUNDGREN-produced masterpiece.