We're A Happy Family - A Tribute To Ramones

To no one's surprise, "We're A Happy Family" is the usual mixed bag as far as tribute albums go. However, the good vs. shitty track breakdown is more or less a complete reversal of what might be expected. The Chili Peppers sleepwalk through "Havana Affair"; I was hoping they'd use this as a way to, y'know, not suck for any longer and start kicking ass like they used to. Alas and alack. The problem with a lot of the tracks is that they slow down songs that just shouldn't be slowed down. Rob Zombie's "Blitzkrieg Bop" is no exception, and the less said about Marilyn Manson's downright lethargic "The KKK Took My Baby Away" the better. Jesus. It's almost as if these people think that the power of the Ramones lay in their subtly crafted lyrics or the layering of multiple and diverse musical elements, and that in order to have their genius fully appreciated the songs should be twice as long as the originals and treated to a torrent of overproduction.

On the positive side, U2's "Beat On The Brat" and KISS' "Do You Remember Rock 'N' Roll Radio" are surprisingly enough the closest to the originals in sound and quality. Garbage's "I Just Wanna Have Something To Do" is pretty comtemporary-sounding; the unaware would probably think it was a Garbage original if heard outside the context of this album. Tom Waits' "Return Of Jackie And Judy" simply owns, of course.

The problem with this tribute can mayhaps best be summed up with the following statistics:

Ratio of songs containing "want" or "wanna" on the two "All The Stuff And More" compilations: 16 out of 63, or 25.3%

Ratio of songs containing "want" or "wanna" on the "We're A Happy Family" tribute: 3 out of 15, or 20%

That's 5.3% more wanna that you're getting with the originals, kids. You know where to get the good stuff. Gabba gabba.

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