On the subject of covers, a friend got an advance of the new Rod Stewart Soulbook collection. And as I said above, it's nice that Rod can still bring it, vocally.
But like the Great American Songbook collections, it's fundmentally lazy. On Rod's early albums, when he took on something like "(I Know) I'm Losing You", he really rethought it from the ground up and shaped into something wholly his own. Here, the arrangements are forgettable facsimiles of the originals (if anything, there's often more accompanying instrumentation and vocal backing than even the originals), with the obligatory diva guest stars, and Rod plays it by the numbers: he's upbeat on "Love Train" because it's upbeat, and he's wistful on "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" because it's wistful, but rarely does he even attempt to try anything that smacks of genuine interpretation.
Actually, there is one brief moment: the opening of the first track, "It's The Same Old Song", is slowed down and almost sung-spoken (like the intro to a Gershwin tune), but when it revs up, it's pretty much the standard arrangement. And "Wonderful World" is given a dose of funk, but it's pretty hard to do much interesting with that song at this point, anyway.
The other thing about Rod's covers back in the day is that they were always used to leaven his once-very-strong songwriting. But back to back to back there's a real sense of diminishing returns.
That said, it's a pleasant enough album, and he genuinely gives a few of the originals (including "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "You Make Me Feel Brand New") a run for their money. If someone makes you sit through it, your thoughts might wander, but they won't turn to suicide (or mayhem), which these days is not to be taken for granted.
