Search - Petra Haden :: Who Sell Out

AT LAST!

Artie Fisk | New Paltz, NY, USA | 04/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After years of teasing on WFMU (where executive producer Irwin Chusid has been playing tracks from this for a few years now), we finally have the fruit of Mike Watt's suggestion to Petra Haden. Wow! This is about as cool as an acapella recording can get. There is none of the over-slick-ness of most recent acapella stuff. There is, in fact, very little that one might expect on this record.



What IS on this record is a sort of DIY, indie-rock, almost shooby-taylor-esque (at times) interpretation of the Who's BEST LP (don't listen to those who argue with this...the only other that even comes CLOSE is "A Quick One") in PURE VOCALS. Petra Haden imitates the guitars, basses, drums, pianos, and of course, all the vocals from the original, but not in a methodical, exacting fashion. Rather, she has pulled out just the essentials of her personal listening experience of THE WHO SELL OUT and used them. "Drums" appear only here and there, but always to great effect and always with great taste and restraint (for example on Rael). Ms. Haden's basslines are impeccable, and her guitars are spot-on, right down to the attack and the timbre. It is on the massed, often "operatic" (really more like baroque, but I digress) vocal flourishes, however, that Petra Haden's true genius becomes apparent. Her treatment of "I Can See For Miles" is BRILLIANT, with a menacing drone hovering underneath sweet arpeggiated guitars and HUGE three-or-four-part harmonies that OUTDOES the original. The best stuff here, though, is the less rocky, less kitschy stuff: Townshend's slower compositions, like I Can't Reach You, Tattoo, and Sunrise. There, the natural sweetness of her voice shines through, conveying an aching beauty that surpasses, in its untrained simplicity, any high-falutin' choir.



Overall, the effect here is of listening to The Who Sell Out through headphones while very stoned, when you were maybe 16 or 17, doing imitations of all your favorite parts of the record with your voice. More of us than would probably care to admit it still do this in the car. Petra Haden has made it art, simultaneously outclassing all of us dilletantes and setting a new standard for that animal known as the "cover version."



Ms. Haden's sensitivity to and affection for these songs is apparent, as is her TREMENDOUS talent. This is, for me, by FAR the best release of 2005 to date! Anyone who would give this a one-star rating is indicative of the mindset that JUST DOESN'T GET IT, the sort of person who judges guitar players exclusively on their technique (which they usually call "chops" - UGH) rather than sensitivity or ideas or originality or balls. Don't listen to that sort of claptrap!"

PETRA HADEN SELLS OUT

Wm B. Cundiff | Louisville, KY | 03/22/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Petra Haden may be a familiar name to you. Maybe not.

Ms. Haden was the violin player and a back-up singer in That Dog; an underrated power-pop band of the 90's that also included one of her triplet sisters, Rachel. Their father is the legendary jazz bassist Charlie Haden.

Petra appeared on a Weezer fan favorite b-side, singing "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams".

When she suffered serious injuries after being hit by a car in August of 2000, Weezer, Beck, Victoria Williams and others participated in a series of shows and recorded a benefit record to help pay the bills. That's what friends are for, ehh?



So...now that we are caught up on who the gal is....



Petra Haden's latest release is "Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out". That would mean that she, herself, sings every bit of the record: intruments, vocals...even the commercials from the original record. They called it "a cappella" back in ye olden days...and I guess they still do. Yet, that might give you the wrong impression of what this record is.



"Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out" was recorded sporadically from 2000-2003 on a Tascam-488 8-track. As the story goes, Mike Watt introduced her to the classic album and asked her if she'd do her interpretation of it. Watt writes liner notes with the CD, explaining the story of the idea, the importance of this particular Who record to him and the late D. Boon and he gives Ms. Haden much, much praise.



The opening of the album introduces you immediately to Ms. Haden's vocal talents. She is no stranger to working with only herself (a 4-track record, "Imaginaryland" is available from Win Records) so the entire album is performed with confidence and proficiency in her solitary process. Flawless.

One obvious problem such an endeavor might suffer from is the whole thing running together. It could be boring, it could be silly or it could be downright bad. It could all sound the same and be a novelty album. But it doesn't and it isn't and the listener forgets that there could have ever been an obstacle to pulling off this entertainingly reverent and beautiful rendition of a classic album.

Each song takes on a personality and that keeps the entire record flowing wonderfully. Some are pretty traditional a cappella while others play with other sounds- mimicked guitar solos, percussion sounds and soulful melodies.

Like the original record, Ms. Haden's interpretations of these songs are beautiful, sometimes funny, sometimes intense. The record itself has a variety of songs which made it an excellent candidate for such a project.



Watt explains in the liner notes that he gave her the 8-track with "The Who Sell Out" on track 8 of a set of tapes for her to use, which could have led to direct, cold, dull covers of the songs. There is no sign of that being a problem in the fnished product.



Pete Townshend is already said to be a fan of this record. How cool is that?



This record is enjoyable from beginning to finish. It's beautiful, it's fun and it's a really cool idea executed by an amazing vocal talent.



"This is the power of music: to make ideas come alive, to breathe life in little boy daydream pasts so far removed by time..." - Mike Watt from the liner notes of "Petra Haden Sings: The Who Sell Out""