ANTHOLOGY V (COVERS)

The final anthology album is a collection of covers. These came from albums as early as 1993's "Lost in an Absinthe Dream" with a version of The Beatles "Day Tripper" to 2014 with a cover of Ange's, "Sur La Trace Des Fees" and a couple other songs from the album, "14".

Other bands covered on the album include Black Sabbath, REM, Twelfth Night, the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Hawkwind and the Rolling Stones. By far the most frequently covered band on the album is the Beatles with 7 songs. This is hardly a surprise, as I mentioned in an earlier review that whenever I hit a wall and all inspiration vanished, I'd turn to covering Beatles songs until they'd blast me through writers block.

Rating this album is a difficult task. Not difficult about deciding a fair rating based on the quality of the songs and the PA rating guidelines, but difficult in the sense of a feeling of disappointment. Why? Because no one will likely ever hear the album due to current copyright laws covering BandCamp, youtube, SoundCloud, etc. Take youtube for example, for some inexplicable reason, people are allowed to upload entire albums that they obviously did not create or own the rights to with no repercussions.

True story: I uploaded a Mutiny in Jonestown cover of "Day Tripper" a few years ago and within weeks youtube sends me a message that I've been flagged for violating copyright. Then they tell me it's ok because they have an arrangement with the copyright owner who will allow me to violate copyright as long as I allow them to embed advertising in my video.

So let me get this straight, you are saying I'm breaking the law and I'm on a list, but it's ok if I let you monetize my video? Great. And what happens when Google changes this copyright policy without notifying me? All of the sudden myself and everyone on your list becomes a proven copyright violator? No thanks.

My wife owns a marketing and social media management business. I've seen first hand what happens to her clients that pull an image off Google without owning copyright or having permission and put it in their social media. They get a letter (usually from Getty Images) that basically states: We've discovered you're using one of our images without permission. We don't care if you've already taken it down or promise to do so. You used it and we documented it. We've included an invoice for $1,000 which is due immediately. If payment is not received in 10 days we will begin legal proceedings and sue you for much more.

I know I've gotten way off topic for an album review, but I thought it was relevant to the process of determining a fair rating for the album (and also it might prevent some of you from "getting on the list" with youtube or sued by Google/Getty Images :-)

Anyway, I pulled my cover of "Day Tripper" and have never uploaded anything I didn't create since. For that reason, and the fact that nearly half of the covers are considered rock rather than prog, I'll sadly give the album 2 stars. If the current double standard of music copyright law regarding cover songs someday changes and I can upload this album to BandCamp, I'll do so and happily upgrade my rating.