What’s in an influence, eh? At what point does inspiration blur unkindly across of the boundaries of theft? It’s a question that has held court in a million pub debates: did Oasis rip off The Beatles? Did Gene copy the Smiths? Do the likes of The Rapture and Franz Ferdinand continue to plunder he archives of bands like the Gang Of Four? My own view is that there’s a point at which the hand that guides the pen of the artist is overcome by fondness and ends up tracing the hand that got their before it in the hope of arriving at the same glorious conclusion. The hand of lesser inspiration simply follows the lines and joins the dots in pursuit of excellence, those more truly inspired pick up the dots and set off in a new direction, bagging fresh dots as they budge along. It ultimately leads them to something that whilst not looking totally original, at least looks like it was performed by a different hand. The acid test would be to ask Oasis if they could perform a Beatles number and make it sound like an Oasis number. Surely this would settle the argument?
Grant-Lee Phillips has done precisely that. He’s taken a dozen or so songs that had some lasting impact on his own songwriting and musicianship and moulded them around his own gentle, acoustic mesh; a mixtape that has reeled around his head for decades. Featuring semi-acoustic reimaginings of songs like ‘Wave Of Mutilation’ by the Pixies, ‘The Killing Moon’ by Echo & The Bunnymen, ‘Age Of Consent’ by New Order, ‘The Eternal’ by Joy Division, ‘So. Central Rain’ by REM and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ by the Cure, ‘nineteeneighties’ honours the blistering noble underground that eventually erupted with Nirvana in the early nineties. And characteristically, he’s made them his own.
Case closed.