Calamateur
Jesus is For Losers (Autoclave)
So, if Jesus is just a Spanish boy’s name, why have so many dedicated tunes to him - and I’m not just talking the Songs of Praise crew. On this unusual and free-to-download album, Andrew Howie has gathered together versions by some of the more credible Christ songs as well as a few surprises.
The good news first - this is no ‘Saved’ (Bob Dylan’s all-time-low) but there have been stabs at putting JC into a rock context - from Broken Family Band’s Jesus Songs, to Hefner’s wee series of ‘Hymns’ to Alcohol and Cigarettes, as well as Breaking God’s Heart. Hell, even Godspell had its moments.
Calamateur’s homage isn’t all strictly religion either, more examining human nature and faith - so there are originals such as ‘White Light Unknown’ which deals with suicide, and a punked-up ‘Perfect Moment’. However, it’ll be the covers that are of most interest - even if these two are a match for anything else here.
Lloyd Webber’s ‘I Don’t Know How To Love Him’ is well, odd - it’s hard to get round the fact that Howie’s vocals sit where Elaine Paige’s should be, and this takes the communion wafer for most bizarre track here (or indeed, pretty much anywhere). The U2-penned ‘Wake Up Dead Man’ is one of the bstter ones here, beating Zwan’s ‘Jesus, I’ hands down, while the stripped-back version of the Velvets ‘Jesus’ - not one of the band’s finest moments - doesn’t lend too much to the album apart from a kind of completism and the sense that there’s something here that’s definitely not one from the hymnbook.
It would be too easy, given that Howie has chosen the tunes and arranged them himself, to suggest that his own material is better than that of Bono and American Music Club. But from the blatant pop of ‘Lonely Boy’ which combines gospel and football terrace chant, to the fantastic ‘Talitha K’, Howie himself constantly comes up trumps, putting the covers in the shade. They always say that the devil has the best tunes, but I’m not so sure.
(free download from www.jesusisforlosers.co.uk)
Bernhard Bessing
