Mark Ronson - 'Version' (Columbia) Released 16/04/2007

    Mark Ronson gives us an album of covers, politely borrowed from a reasonably wide variety of contemporary popesque acts.

Basically he’s got many famous singers, singing other people's famous songs, then shunting it through a mixer and feeding us the result with a smile.
The result?  It’s certainly catchy stuff, even if he has managed to make every song sound almost exactly the same. Example: Lily Allen sings the Kaiser Chiefs ‘Oh My God’ to a 5-step funk beat. That’s cool you say.  Also, there’s Amy Winehouse doing ‘Valerie’ in a swing style. Equally cool. But then you get the impression if you swapped the lyrics over between the two, there would be little discernable effect.
Please do not misinterpret the situation, they are bloody well done and rather fun to listen to, it’s just this album is a bit of a one-trick pony.
It’s like he put names in a hat and made pairs of singers, songs and instruments, then made a few phone calls. Oh, and had the proviso that they ALL had to be 70’s funk. Admittedly, he admits to that, saying that he has “turned them into Motown stax 70’s versions”. Well, duh.
Happily though, this is an album that will not purely be sold on its vast number of names attached to it. It is a relative work of wonder all on its own and should be treated as such. Ahhh, yeah.