Various Artists - Hurry Home Early: The Songs Of Warren Zevon / 2005 Wampus Multimedia / http://www.wampus.com / Reviewed 22 July 2005
After Warren Zevon passed, there was a fury of commemorative reissues and compilations, but this disc had been in the hopper since 200l, its aim true (Wampus is planning on giving a dollar of every sale of this disc to cancer research).While looking at the compilation for the first time will result in finding a lot of unknown names (Phil Cody, The Simple Things) and not-so-famous Zevon songs (Run Straight Down), the fact is that there are stars and strong tracks strewn about. Phil Cody, who toured with Zevon in the past does a straight up cover (down to vocal inflection) of Zevon’s “Splendid Isolation”, while The Simple
Things modify “I’ll Slow You Down” into perfect early-nineties power pop. Born out of the fuzz of The Replacements, Husker Du and John Mellencamp, The Simple Things cut a track that just feels perfect on the tracks of an movie from that era. The incorporation of Zevon-esque guitar work towards the end of the track makes “I’ll Slow You Down” all the stronger. While “Desperados Under The Eaves” always had a sort of country twinge to it, Last Train Home moves the track further into the realm of country, a move that is not all that surprising considering the success of Linda Ronstadt’s version of “Poor Poor Pitiful Me”. The disc spins its way to a minor rut during the uninspired and tepid cover of “Carmelita” by Rachel Stamp, and continues down that path with The Matthew Show’s version of “Mohammed’s Radio”. The Matthew Show’s version of the track is fairly low-key, but uses some nice applications of drawn-out vocals, if the way it is finished is not too terribly exciting.
The inclusion of the unreleased “Warm Rain” is a much-have for all Zevon aficionados, even if the track falls into the aforementioned mid-disc doldrums. It is during Neil Luckett’s (tvfordogs) impression of Dave Matthews that the disc can begin to regain some of its lost momentum; the sweet sound of eir voice and quaint guitarwork make Luckett’s version of “Mutineer” touching. The up-tempo version of “Life’ll Kill Ya” gives the track (which always was a high point of Zevon’s later work) a Dylan feel, all while throwing a little pop-punk influence (the Dylan-esque vocals also seem to add in Mark Hoppus’ vocals). A strong mixture of tracks by bands that deserve getting a boost from their efforts on this disc, which is for the most part a great representation of Zevon’s music.
Top Tracks: Robbie Rist’s “Mr. Bad Example”, Phil Cody’s “Splendid Isolation”
Rating: 7.2/10