The Saturday Sessions: The Dermot O'Leary Show

various artists
"THE SATURDAY SESSIONS: THE DERMOT O'LEARY SHOW"
(EMI/UK, 2007)


"In Other Words" - Ben Kweller


Not even knowing who Dermot O'Leary was, let alone that he hosts a weekly music show on BBC Radio 2 which features live in-studio performances, of which this album is comprised, I almost didn't give it a second look -- especially since I'm not terribly fond of live albums to begin with. However, had I known that there's no studio audience, and therefore no audience applause to "clutter" the recording, I'd have saved a lot of the time that I wasted hesitating before picking it up. But the roster of artists featured in the track listing was too full of pleasantly familiar names for me to ignore.

This double-disc set, jam-packed with over two and a half hours of rare performances, features a relatively balanced mix of covers (The Bangles' "Walk Like An Egyptian" performed by The Feeling, and Bat For Lashes performing Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire") and original tunes ("Grace Kelly" by Mika, and Kings of Leon's "On Call"). Fortunately the good tracks (Orson's take on Hall & Oates' "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" seems like a natural fit, K.T. Tunstall delivers a unique version of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back", and Rufus Wainwright's rendition of "Hallelujah" is gorgeous), outweigh the bad ones (I just didn't care for Willy Mason's strange interpretation of George Michael's "Careless Whisper", and Camera Obscura's version of Abba's "Super Trooper" didn't quite seem to fit either).

This compilation is perfect to pop in on those days when you're just not sure what sort of music you're in the mood to listen to, because it has a little bit of everything. But don't just leave it in the corner as a "last resort" CD, because it deserves better than that. Of the 2-disc and 3-disc import compilations I found in my Virgin Megastore visits back in June, this was the most expensive at about $25 (I managed to find all the other ones for $10 each!), but it was well worth it. It's a times like these when I wish I were living in the UK so I could listen to Dermot O'Leary on a regular basis. I may have to see if I can get Radio 2 on the web....