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popular music: What The World Needs Now: Big Deal Recording Artists Perform The Songs Of Burt Bacharach | Various Artists

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	What The World Needs Now: Big Deal Recording Artists Perform The Songs Of Burt Bacharach Various Artists Big Deal Records, 1998 view larger image
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From the moment a portrait of Burt Bacharach took pride of place on the cover of Oasis's Definitely Maybe, appreciation--real or feigned--of the great composer-arranger has been a must for the self-respecting pop revivalist. Which is as it should be, but while the irony quotient of this 14-track tribute album may be low, it's hardly as effective at acknowledging fan debts as was Bacharach's own brief, good-natured presence in Austin Powers. One immediate problem is the set's label-based parochialism; fecklessly tune-deficient renderings of "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me" (by the Absolute Zeros) and "Baby It's You" (by Michael Shelley) are hardly the proper treatment for Bacharach's carefully crafted, often challenging melodies, especially when non-Big Dealers like Stephen Merritt or Elvis Costello are around to do them right. Other renditions turn into pitched battles between song and interpreter, as on "Promise Her Anything," a relatively obscure song originally sung by Tom Jones for a Warren Beatty vehicle of the same name; while the Gladhands hardly match Jones's insouciance, they don't completely pillage the number either. Better, though, to grab a copy of The Dionne Warwick Collection or the Look of Love three-CD set of originals. --Rickey Wright

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