After a veritable deluge of 'em a few years back during the initial onslaught of alternative, tribute albums have largely receded back into the indie-label margins from which they originally sprang. For the most part, the ones that are being done now are labors of love. Of course, there are exceptions (like the last two entries here), as well as a lot of different kinds of tribute discs besides the obvious collections of covers.

REASONS FOR LIVING

Holding Kate Bush responsible for the hackneyed horde of Lilith imitators is sorta like blaming Led Zeppelin for Kingdom Come: It isn't the originator's fault if the wannabes who follow choose to amplify all the wrong elements of what was initially a damn fine sound. In addition to her sometimes ponderous poetry and majestic and melodramatic sounds, Kate always had a great sense of humor. The folks here capture that, and they breathe new life into songs such as "The Sensual World" (as rendered by Susan Voelz of Poi Dog Pondering), "The Man With The Child In His Eyes" (Syd Straw) and "L'Amour Looks Something Like You" (the Aluminum Group). Granted, these aren't major names, but they do the honoree justice. If you're just looking for a bunch of bloated alt-rockers playing lame-ass covers, read on.

THINGS THAT SUCK

Jim DeRogatis is the rock critic for the Chicago Sun-Times, a columnist for myLAUNCH, and a prolific freelancer. He briefly worked as a senior editor at Rolling Stone, until he was fired for complaining when Jann Wenner killed a negative review of Hootie & the Blowfish.
Copyright© 1997-1998 LAUNCH Media, Inc.

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