Redwood Revolution – The Covers (Live) (Album Review)

Redwood Revolution, a local band from Humboldt County, California, released a live album consisting of covers of famous tunes of different genres. The band is fronted by Beth Isbell, who has also released her own music, including a single in which one of our own critics has reviewed not too long ago.

I listened to that single in preparation for this review, and I can say that it’s okay, but I will elaborate more later. For now, let’s dive into this live album. Disclaimer: I’m not a fan of artists releasing albums that are just full of covers, but let’s see if Redwood Revolution is able to impress.

After listening to the entire album, I’m going to have to give a disclaimer for those who are not familiar with my critiques:

I am a brutally honest critic, but only because I believe that artists should be told the truth, even if it’s harsh. I’ve learned that it’s the only way artists (or anyone else, for that matter) will learn. For one to improve, you must reflect on yourself from time to time, and face the music (no pun intended) when the time calls for it. Better to tell an artist they’re not good than to feed their wild delusions.

That being said, this review is going to be very short, because I am going to sum it up this way.

To say that this live album is bad, even very bad, would be a great understatement.

To start off, this was a terrible recording of an already substandard performance. I would ask Beth Isbell if she has even bothered to check the quality before releasing this? Any producer or sound engineer would be fired on the spot for putting out a product that was even half as bad as this. As such, this was a very rough listen, and I’m sure anyone who listens to this would feel the same way.

Being a die hard Pink Floyd man myself and having had the privilege to see Roger Waters perform some of my favorite songs of all time, hearing this band absolutely murder “Breathe” and “Comfortably Numb” needs to be considered a violation of the Geneva Convention.

The only other thing that makes this project unbearable to the ears are the vocals. Beth Isbell, I mean this with all due respect, but you cannot sing. I understand that you want to follow your dream and had to really work to get to where you are currently, but some things are simply not meant to be. It’s not even just being out of key, it’s that there is no strength behind those vocals. On the other hand, Hollis Muenster had the worst vocal performance on this record when he sang “Heathens”. I’m not going to even apologize for that comment, Hollis couldn’t hit a high note if his life depended on it. I’ll say that I would highly recommend that you stick to playing instruments, and I’ll get into that a little later.

That all being said, there is one, and only one, redeemable quality to this album. Spencer Kennedy’s guitar work wasn’t all bad. Sure, it didn’t impressive me in any capacity, but I truly had no problem with it. I would say that his best work is heard in the songs “Slow” and “Blister in the Sun”.

SCORE/Poor: I’ll give Beth Isbell two pieces of advice, and they’re quite simple:

1. It’s not too late to take back this album. I’m only saying this to save you from further embarrassment. It doesn’t matter if your friends and family are telling you it’s good – they’re lying. The quality of this album is absolutely unacceptable, and you should treat it as such.
2. To reiterate from earlier, stop singing. I’m sorry, but you simply don’t have it, and that’s okay. Stick to playing the guitar and any other instrument that you are able to play.

If you’re asking yourself, “why is he bothering telling me to keep going?”, it’s because I generally care about helping artists get better. Back to the single “Sun King”, I actually do think it’s pretty decent. Sure, I don’t like the vocals, but it’s musically quite impressive. I’m not going to say that it’s the greatest thing I’ve heard, but there’s potential. I would conclude by saying to this Beth Isbell: tap into that potential, but also be self-aware as to what you can do.

Or not. I’m just a music enthusiast on the internet after all. However, I wish you well in your endeavours. Good luck.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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