Friends And Lovers: Songs Of Bread

They Say...

Review by Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

The soft rock revival reaches its possible peak with the release of Friends and Lovers: Songs of Bread. Badman has gathered some of the main practitioners of the revival and a few other less obvious choices here, giving a shout-out to the songs of David Gates, James Griffin and Robb Royer. A well-deserved nod for sure as Bread were definitely at the top of the soft rock mountain; the bands involved here certainly treat them with respect, turning in mostly reverent versions of some of their biggest songs. Josh Rouse turns in a breathtakingly beautiful and relaxed "It Don't Matter to Me," Erlend Øye's "Friends and Lovers" has a sweetly lilting quality, Ken Stringfellow power pops "Down on My Knees," making it sound like a Badfinger song, Oranger juice up "Make It With You" with some sitar and fuzz bass, and Eric Shea and Bart Davenport drop some absolutely beautiful harmonies on "Goodbye Girl" (which is a David Gates solo track but it is so nicely done you have to give it a pass). A few bands do take liberties with the source material with varying results. Two bands who make it work are Call & Response, whose vocalist Carrie Clough is a dead ringer for Karen Carpenter on "Baby I'm a Want You," the first 30 seconds of which is pure soft rock heaven before heading into a pleasantly bubbling Stereolab-like direction, and Paula Frazer, who imbues "Everything I Own" with a broken grandeur the original didn't have. Those who fail include Rachel Goswell, whose overly somber take on "If" sounds like a failed audition for a This Mortal Coil album; the Holy Sons noodly and vocally overcooked guitar-meets-electronic beats version of "The Last Time," and Emily Sparks' overly earnest and gray "Too Much Love." The rest is pretty decent, especially Dave Derby's sweet "I Use the Soap" and Cake's dorky yet enjoyable "The Guitar Man." Overall the disc is a fitting tribute to a fine band whose time to be rediscovered had come. Coming next -- American Hero: Songs of Joey Scarbury.