albums and tracks

Editor's rating

From the old Top Of The Pops compilations, through Duran Duran's Thank You to Westlife's The Love Album,pop music's battlefields are strewn with abominable covers albums. Sowhy should Mark Ronson be able to sidestep the gory pitfalls? He's aproducer, he's an Englishman passing himself off as a New Yorker, hewears a hat - the signs aren't promising. In fact, the signs have youcringing through your shoes before a note's been played.

Thankfully,Ronson's the man of the moment for a reason: his work with AmyWinehouse and Lily Allen proves that he knows where his horn-fuelledsoul chops are - and he's not afraid to mix them with a bit of nu-skoolhip-hop for a zeitgeist-nutshelling result. Versionis an album of covers, but it keeps to a theme, and a warm andappealing one too. Someone phone Norris McWhirter - a record number ofbarbecues have found a common summer soundtrack.

The selection ismodern, to the point that some guest vocalists are "covering" their owntunes only a couple of years after the original attempt. The results ofthese quick returns are mixed: Maximo Park's Paul Smith sounded farmore comfortable with the more bullish charms and varied twists of theoriginal 'Apply Some Pressure'; Tom Meighan, conversely, sounds as ifhe's found Kasabian's true calling on the super-baggyfied slice of'LSF'. However, there are far richer effects elsewhere.

On asoul-infused set, the ubiquitous horns can induce sensations ofqueasiness, but the warmth they create here is invaluable andauthentic. Nowhere is this clearer than on Winehouse's utterly lovabletake on The Zutons' 'Valerie'. It's a light-as-air Northern Soularrangement, complete with chiming bells and a louche, beguilingperformance from the lady herself. It towers over the rest of therecord, but there's laudable competition from Robbie Williams on anunexpected acid jazz mumble through The Charlatans' 'The Only One IKnow', Santo Gold on a ragga-hop rendition of The Jam's defiantlyblue-collar 'Pretty Green', and Allen somehow finding a way to sex upthe Kaiser Chiefs on a flirtatious gambol through 'Oh My God'.

There'sthe odd flat moment - some samey instrumentals, and a dirty hip-hopplod over Britney's 'Toxic' in the company of Ol' Dirty Bastard'sspirit voice - but little detracts from the perky atmosphere. It's agas.

Matthew Horton