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danzig singselvis
Artist: Danzig
Title: Sings Elvis
Genre: Blues Rock
Release Date: 29th May 2020
Label: Cleopatra Records


Album Review

Glenn Danzig never made a secret of the fact, that he admires Elvis Presley and so he covered some of his songs on previous releases. Now Cleoptara Records released ‘Danzig sings Elvis’. The release date was postponed several times because DANZIG was pretty busy with his movie ‘Verotika’ and some shows of legendary MISFITS. The first thing I realized was, that DANZIG chose mostly ballads and slower songs from the King of Rock’n’Roll’s enormous back catalogue. I understand he didn’t want to cover the greatest hits, but a good record needs some bows of suspense.

“Something must be wrong with the sound system…” I thought, when I had listened through the album for the first time. It sounded as if DANZIG missed the tunes Elvis always seemed to have performed without effort and DANZIG’s voice grew more and more hollow towards the end of the album. Let’s start from the beginning with ‘Is it so strange’. It has a certain morbidity but it is not a great opener. When I listened through the album a second time, I realized I should have taken this song as a warning that there won’t be anything like the Punk version of ‘Let Yourself Go’ like on ‘Skeletons’.

‘One night’ follows next and it’s one of the worst songs on the album. It seems that DANZIG wanted to perform the song with the smallest effort possible. The result is that the very well-known line “Never did no wrong…” fails to show the emotion of the person, the injustice of being kicked out. ‘Lonely Blue Boy’ has a nice Country style touch and it is one of the few songs, DANZIG’s vocals appeal to. ‘First in Line’ is one of the songs DANZIG proves he doesn’t have the vocal range of Elvis and while he strives to hit the tune, he fails. ’Baby Let’s Play House’ comes with an overdose of all kinds of effects, that push the vocals in the background and contradict the title of the album completely.

‘Fever’ is a fantastic a song Elvis covered back in time and made it a song with great vibes and power, DANZIG’s version lacks both and I skipped the song on the second run through. ‘Love Me’ lacks any emotion and warmth and the album started getting really boring and this is the point where I want to spare you any further details. After 14 songs I was through. Silence. I put another record in the player, to check if the system is ok. My sound system worked flawless. Most of the DANZIG’s vocals seemed to have been tuned several pitches lower and this added to my impression that DANZIG’s voice decreased a good deal over the last years.

I caught myself thinking “He should have made this record 20 years ago.” When I heard ‘Pocket Full Of Rainbows’ and ‘First In Line’ for DANZIG is nowhere near the vocal range of the King. The mix of the voice with only a reverb effect completes the disaster; his voice is cold and distant, lacking the warmth and atmosphere some of the songs showed in the original performance by Elvis. I really started myself asking where DANZIG’s voice that always matched Punk and Blues had vanished. The fact that the instrumentation is tuned something like “retro” leads to the lack of emotion and atmosphere and the very monotonous drums started getting on my nerves after a while.

DANZIG played all the instruments except the guitar line himself and it might have been wise to use a drumming machine instead. It seems DANZIG wanted too much and used a too “clean” instrumental setup, maybe striving to catch the vibe of the old days, but it sounds brutally cheap and hollow. He could have used a modern sound, without the failed effort of making modern instruments sounding like back in the 50s and maybe then the instrumental parts would have supported his voice instead of showing the decay of his voice. DANZIG is still a good singer, with the MISFITS and his own songs. If he has a good day, it’s fantastic to hear him perform live with one of his bands, but I hope this kind of production remains a one-shot.

DANZIG performs the songs with some passion, trying to create atmosphere but lacks the vibe, the vocal range and class Elvis had and that makes this record one, that is no fun listening through. If you are a DANZIG fan, you might want to buy the record for your collection, if you are a fan of Elvis, too - it might be likely you will play the record once and then leave it on the shelf forever.


Tracklist

01. Is It So Strange
02. One Night
03. Lonely Blue Boy
04. First In Line
05. Baby Let’s Play House
06. Love Me
07. Pocket Full Of Rainbows
08. Fever
09. When It Rains It Really Pours
10. Always On My Mind
11. Loving Arms
12. Like A Baby
13. Girl Of My Best Friend
14. Young And Beautiful


Line-up

Glenn Danzig - Vocals, Keyboards, Drums
Tommy Victor - Lead Guitar


Website

http://www.danzig-verotik.com/


Cover Picture

danzig singselvis


Rating

Music: 4 / 10
Sound: 5 / 10
Total: 4.5 / 10




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