I was intrigued by the thought of this largely because overall I think Trev is a bit of a genius and has been largely responsible for many truly remarkable pop music moments. Particularly Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise? which refused to leave my turntable for many years, not to mention The Age of Plastic and the Frankie stuff. I’ll put Yes to one side, because I’m not sure that was a good idea but, for FFS, he produced Lexicon of Love and Slave to the Rhythm, so he deserves a sustained round of applause just for these things.
Dear old Iggy is an adopted national treasure and I feel affection for him and he has a few belters under his, er, belt but it was mainly the Trevor Horn involvement in this cover version that made me prick up my ears.
Verdict? Well, it’s actually not a million miles away from the Johnny Cash version of Personal Jesus largely due to the old, quivering vocal delivery and the sparse acoustic guitar noodling away. So, it’s a let-down in that sense. If you can imagine Leonard Cohen singing the song, it would be a similar vibe.
And what’s wrong with that? Nothing – it’s a great song and it’s a privilege that people of this heft are prepared to give it their seal of approval. It’s a straight cover, with no surprising sumptuousness from Trev behind the glass. So it’s a nice two-or-three listens and we move on,
It’s not bad really – but like yourself, I’m not noticing a Trevor Horn marker in there (other than his name).
One wonders if Iggy may go the full Johnny Cash route and use Trevor Horn as his Rick Rubin for a series of albums?