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| 2.5 average | Dave de Sylvia EMERITUS | October 19th 06 |
Genuinely interesting concepts are hard to come by in music, and it's probably for this reason that Artangel managed to rope in world-renowned musicians like Brian Eno, Rufus Wainwright and Scott Walker for their Plague Songs project, a ten-track album in which each artist would compose and record a song based on one of the Plagues of Egypt.
Unfortunately, while the idea is great, the execution falls some way short. Inconsistency dogs this collection, and the lack of more than a couple of genuinely great tracks means the albums has little replay value. Wainwright's folky contribution 'Katonah' is compelling but predictable, while Eno's 'Flies' misses the mark completely.
The best tracks here come from unexpected sources: Klashnekoff's virtuousic grime track 'Blood' opens proceedings with a bang and never lets up, which is more than can be said for the following tracks. Stephin Merritt's 'Lice' is an ironic synth pop masterpiece and nu-soul prodigy Cody ChesnuTT's 'Boils' recalls the best days of southern soul.
Ultimately, however, Plague Songs is a collection that will be returned to for individual tracks- fans of the artists will treasure their favourite's contribution, but serious music listeners will find no reason to keep it.
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