Nick Troop

 

Beatles Unlimited
A 40th anniversary tribute to one of the most favourite Beatles albums and another one in a row of Beatles album tributes. Album tributes like this also provides cover versions of otherwise forgotten songs like Love You To and Dr Robert. In general, cover versions tend to leave something intact of the originals, performing in a Xerox style or featuring recognizable elements thereof. This reworking however is quite the opposite and just uses the lyrics and intently performs them with fully new instrumentation and drastic re-arrangements. Nick Troop’s creative mind has searched for inventive approaches, such as in his version of Taxman: the bass line from Taxman was taken by the Jam for their song Start, so Troop took the bass line from the Jam song A Town Called Malice for his version of Taxman. Just occasionally the vocals sound like the original (Eleanor Rigby) or the similar guitar line is picked up (And Your Bird Can Sing), but in general the songs are remarkably fresh and sound like fully new, contemporary songs. Other remarkable interpretations include a guitar-led ‘handclapping included’ version of I’m Only Sleeping, a pub-song version of Yellow Submarine and a bluesy Got To Get You Into My Life. Anyway, Nick Troop (with just a little help from a few friends) has transformed them into often danceable, at times bombastic glam rock versions (featuring Mark Almond-ish vocals and sometimes Oasis-like accompaniments). It all goes to show that one can go pretty far in making cover versions, with the original lyrics being the only distinctive mark of the performance, set into new musical entourages. (B.U. 194)

 

Well here is something that you do not come across too often, an artist covering a whole album from another artist. The artist and album in question is The Beatles REVOLVER album at which point you may or may not sit up and become more interested in this. You might also ask who is nuts enough to attempt this mad venture. The answer is Nick Troop aka CatDesigners who assures us that “I’ve done it a little differently. I wanted the styles I used to pre-date and post-date The Beatles.”

 

For the opening track TAXMAN, Troop deliberately takes the bassline from The Jam’s A TOWN CALLED MALICE and slightly changed it so now it has a more driving rock feel to it. ELEANOR RIGBY is musically darker, almost sinister in tone thanks to the distorted rhythm guitar, sounding like a bad late 60’s acid trip. Structurally, I’M ONLY SLEEPING is not much different to the original but is still a great cover thanks to a bouncing bass and handclaps. On the no chord LOVE YOU TO, Troop takes the opportunity to mix wah-wah guitar with a dance beat and it works. HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE is a brilliant attempt as Troop messes about with the melody to the point that he makes the song sound as if he had written it himself. Troop very nearly skipped over the classic YELLOW SUBMARINE and quickly realised that the album could not be called a REVOLVER tribute album without it. So he approached it as if it were recorded as an old English sea shanty and what fun it is as well. SHE SAID, SHE SAID somehow sounds as if Echo and the Bunnymen had recorded it.

 

GOOD DAY, SUNSHINE is a bit like The Kinks meets Blur, something that Damon Albarn has been trying to do for years. AND YOUR BIRD CAN SING sounds a bit teeny thanks to the use of a drum machine but it at least keeps the song flowing. Troop then proceeds to deconstruct FOR NO ONE and it brings out the songs wonderful lyrics. DOCTOR ROBERT is given a new wave feel to it while I WANT TO TELL YOU is slowed right down. GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE is turned into a straight blues tune featuring only a lap steel guitar, two vocals and a harmonica. The once psychedelic TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS is given the glam undertones that Goldfrapp has recently championed and it comes over all dirty and sexy. This album is quite fun to listen to and one would hope that Troop might attempt THE WHITE album sometime.

 

Luna Kafe: Review by Anna Maria Stjärnell
Nick Troop, who is Cat Designers, has made two fine albums in the past. His new one is a cover of the Beatles' Revolver. There have been others doing this as well, Mary Lee's Corvette's version of Dylan's Blood on the Tracks springs to mind. But Troop's gifted enough and brave enough to succeed.

 

"I'm only Sleeping" gets a breezy, mostly acoustic reading without too many liberties taken. Those are taken elsewhere. A pretty, fragile "Here, There and Everywhere" leads us into a bizarrely cool sea shanty of "Yellow Submarine". Honestly, its sounds like it always should have been this way. The brilliant "She Said, She Said" bounces along with dancey glee and Troop's talent shines. The bluesy reading of "Got To Get You Into My Life" works well too. "Tomorrow Never Knows" is just as trippy as ever, but strangely danceable in this incarnation.

This won't replace the original in anyone's affections, but it makes an entertaining album in its own right.