Cost: $1.00
A tribute CD of female artists doing acoustic covers of Sabbath and Ozzy. I've never heard of any of them before, but I saw several of them also appear on a Fleetwood Mac tribute on the same label. Oh dear. As you will note, the tracklisting skews towards very popular tracks, and there are no mellower songs like "Planet Caravan" or "Changes" that might have a decent chance of translating well. The whole concept seems extremely lame, but it can't be as bad as the Stryper tribute, right? Let's find out...
1. Linda Benskin - Hole in the Sky
Not a big fan of this as a cover. The vocals feel weird in this context, although the arrangement is well done. This will probably be a recurring theme.
2. Robin McDonald - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
I like the arrangement, but the vocals feel stilted and overly talk-singy at times. There's a slight reverb(?) effect on the vocals during the verses which makes them sound like an old woman.
3. Julie Griffin - Never Say Die
Much more soulful vocals here. Even if they come off a bit overzealous at times, at least they sound enthusiastic.
4. Linda Benskin - Crazy Train
Sounded promising from the opening melody but the rest of the arrangement is kind of simplified. It's the lethargic vocals that really bring this down, though.
5. Heather Nolan - Flying High Again
Southern lilt to the singing which gives this a bit of a country feel. Vocals are very unenthused sounding but it's not as bad as the last track.
6. Camille Boscardin - Iron Man
Stands out a bit from the previous tracks due to the somewhat folksier arrangement and the layered vocals. Not great, though.
7. Aj Kusuhara - Paranoid
Not how I ever want to hear "Paranoid," but at least it's not as bad as some of the other versions.
8. Cindy Mendenhall - War Pigs
This song just doesn't translate to the style that they're going for well.
9. Jen Lettellier - Bark at the Moon
Again, weird choice to cover in this type of fashion. Vocals remind me a little of Lisa Loeb.
10. Julia Orr - Sweet Leaf
As a song this works better for this than some of the others. Vocals sound a bit like if the "Never Say Die" singer reined it in a little.
11.
Kim Coger - N.I.B.
This was the cover I was most curious about, because I could see it working as an acoustic version, but given some of the other tracks, I was prepared for a trainwreck. This song certainly works a lot better in this style than a lot of the others. Vocals aren't the worst but not the best on this album, either.
12. Kymberly Evans - No More Tears
Strictly as a cover version, this is probably the best track on here. I only think the original song is okay (especially in comparison to some of the Sabbath classics on here), which says a lot about the compilation.
I noticed the booklet only credits the singers, and the guitar playing is of a uniform quality all across the tracks, so it's obvious the same person/team recorded all the guitarwork. While that aspect it's bad per se, this just has no reason to exist--there's not even the fun factor that can come out of string tributes or even those baby song tributes. If it must exist at all, this kind of stuff should stay at a coffeehouse's open mic night, there's no need to make it a CD.
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