This is probably going to end up on her SongBook covers album, which is slated to be her sophomore album. We don’t think a sophomore album of covers is a good idea especially if your first record didn’t really hit the mark. At any rate, it’s an interesting choice of a cover.
It’s a very bad idea to cover any song that had Jeff Lynne and ELO involved because their orchestral backing literally rubber-stamped the definitive way the song should sound. Here, the backing isn’t only just a pale imitation of the original, but Sharleen’s voice just isn’t as strong as Olivia’s and the whole version does indeed sound like karaoke.
The only way Sharleen could have covered Xanadu would be to completely re-arrange the song (and if you’re doing a covers album so early in your solo carer, you *should* be re-arranging the songs!), but by generally sticking to the same arrangement in an inferior way, this has to get the thumbs down from most listeners.
What I *dare* any radio DJ to do (and this should be mandatory for all cover albums) is to play each original and then Sharleen’s cover and then critique each pair against each other. I suspect almost all cover albums would fail dismally in this respect! My point is an old and obvious one – don’t do a cover unless you can either sing it better than the original (I’m looking at you Bob Dylan) or re-arrange it cleverly and score a winner that way.
As an avid ELO fan I have to agree with these comments. Sharleen who is obviously very talented and sucessful, realy does not do this particular piece any justice. The reason this song is was sucessful was becuase Jeff Lyne was able to write extremely good songs and music. Sharleen has missed this point and so the song in my opinion sounds lousy! I have also noted that she has failed to credit Jeff Lyne and ELO when she promotes the song. I only hope that Jeff recieves the correct royalities!