Guilty Pleasures For A New Generation

Guilt by Association Vol. 2 - Various Artists (Engine Room Recordings.com)

I’m usually one of the first to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to guilty pleasures. To me, there’s more pleasure then guilt, especially when it comes to music. I’ve found a lot of guilty pleasures while rummaging through garage sales and such for vinyl records. One of my first “treasures” was a Neil Diamond album with a cover of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” an amazingly quiet acoustic cover. I also love stuff like The Archie’s, Chipmunk Punk, and the holy grail of guilty pleasures, The Royal Guardsmen’s trilogy of “Snoop Vs. The Red Baron!”

But I digress: The guilty pleasures on “Guilt by Association” are cool-as-a-cucumber cool! Fourteen indie bands that sometime or another crossed paths with mostly 80’s & 90’s Top 40 staples like “Tainted Love,” which is revamped here by My Brightest Diamond with less drama, and from a female’s point of view. The electronic dance beat that they dose it with is more subliminal than Soft Cell’s original, but still dancey! Toto’s “Africa” is given a much needed face-lift; hell, the original actually needed to be put in a body bag an thrown in the river! But Lowry does a nice job of fleshing out the words and adding an mid-tempo beat. The Forms cleverly synthesize and slow down Billy Joel’s historic epic, “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The majority of the covers are bona fide hits in their own right, but there are a few misses, including Cassettes Won’t Listen’s drab cover of INXS’ “Need You Tonight.” It lacks the snap, crackle, and pop of the original. The lone song from 2008 (from the 00’s? what are they gonna call this decade anyway?) Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” turns the tables as Max Vernon’s piano-fied version provides a guy’s eye view: “I kissed a girl just to try it/ Hope my boyfriend don’t mind it…” Hey Katy, I sorry for all those mean things I said about you. You go girl! - Phil Rainone