![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/andygibb_tribute.jpg\")
It can\u2019t have been easy being Andy Gibb. It would be challenging enough to have a famous older sibling scoring hit after hit and then trying to have a music career of your own. But Andy had three older brothers doing it. Not only could Barry, Robin and Maurice sing, but they could write.<\/p>\n
Andy never fully escaped from the shadow the Bee Gees cast over his career, but he made some solid pop albums. Three, in fact, with more than a bit of help (from Barry in particular, who co-wrote many songs).<\/p>\n
The idea of an album in tribute to Andy Gibb might not occur to most. But it did occur to Andrew Curry, who has masterminded similar projects in honor of many other artists. It will go without saying to anyone familiar with Andy\u2019s work that the material explored on this 15-song various artists set is firmly in soft-pop territory. But it\u2019s winning<\/i> soft-pop.<\/p>\n
And while Pop 4\u2019s reading of \u201c(Love is) Thicker Than Water\u201d takes a stylistic perspective not unlike the original, other bands are a bit more adventurous. The Corner Laughers\u2019 \u201cShadow Dancing\u201d is sterling, displaying just a scintilla of danger. Unexpected, that. And sparkle*jets u.k. make \u201cI Can\u2019t Help It\u201d sound like a James Bond theme.<\/p>\n
Lisa Mychols\u2019 \u201c(Our Love) Don\u2019t Throw it All Away\u201d has a lovely feel and arrangement. Coke Belda made his Gibb-fandom known long ago, and his cover of \u201cMe (Without You)\u201d is lovely. Unic\u00f3rnios Impressionantes apply a Sergio Mendes feel to \u201cAfter Dark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some songs work better than others, and some performances doesn\u2019t quite scale the heights of pop effervescence. But when the artists reach a bit, the effort often pays dividends. So it is with the Armoires\u2019 \u201cWords and Music,\u201d cast here in an arrangement that strongly evokes thoughts of Sixpence None the Richer\u2019s \u201cKiss Me.\u201d It\u2019s easily the best track on the album.<\/p>\n
But David Brookings gives that track a run for its money with his cover of \u201cAn Everlasting Love.\u201d The stiff drums sound like band-in-a-box but the guitar jangle and multitracked vocals offset that minor weakness. Irene Pe\u00f1a\u2019s \u201cWherever You Are\u201d is another highlight; here\u2019s hoping she surfaces with a full-length album of her own, sharpish.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn \u201cWhy,\u201d the Test Pressings (featuring Robbie Rist) rock up Andy Gibb\u2019s music with surprisingly impressive results. Jason Berk threatens to do nearly as well with \u201cFlowing Rivers,\u201d but his drums sound suspiciously like samples played on a keyboard, and the song suffers from that. His tasty guitar textures go a long way toward redeeming matters, though. How one feels about falsetto vocals will determine one\u2019s potential for enjoying Ken Sharp and Fernando Perdomo\u2019s reading of \u201cOne More Look at the Night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Few of the songs here \u2013 written by Andy Gibb, Barry or both \u2013 rank among the most immortal works in the pop music canon. Barry saved those for his group. But they\u2019re not throwaways, either. Mostly, they\u2019re pretty-good or better pop songs. And grading on the curve that doesn\u2019t judge the source material, Higher Than a Mountain<\/i> is good, sometimes very good and occasionally brilliant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It can\u2019t have been easy being Andy Gibb. It would be challenging enough to have a famous older sibling scoring hit after hit and then trying to have a music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,51,65],"tags":[4599],"class_list":["post-21315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-pop","category-review","tag-andy-gibb","cat-49-id","cat-51-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21315"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21402,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21315\/revisions\/21402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}