Album Review: Glen Campbell – ‘Meet Glen Campbell’

By Dana Rae Aug 13, 2008, 14:55 GMT

Meet Glen Campbell welcomes the discovery and the re-discovery of the legend, his music, and his artistry. With a distinguished music career that spans more than five decades, Glen Campbell has returned to his longtime label home Capitol Records recording 10 new tracks for Meet Glen Campbell. ...more

Glen Campbell covers ten songs from various artists in his new studio album: ‘Meet Glen Campbell.’

Two of the songs are Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers hits, “Walls” and “Angel Dream.” I was apprehensive at first, being a die-hard Tom Petty fan, however, upon several listenings, Glen Cambell’s versions grew on me. 

Other songs that he remixes are “All I Want is You” by U2, “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day, and “Times Like These” by the Foo Fighters. Again, these are songs that I am used to hearing from the original singers/writers, and so my ears had listen for awhile. I actually listened to the album about ten times and tried really, really hard not to be biased. 

Some of the songs I am not so familiar with – “Sadly Beautiful” by The Replacements, “Jesus” by Velvet Underground, “Grow Old With Me” by John Lennon, and “Sing” by Travis - so I was not as critical in my assessments and thought that Campbell did a good job.

The guitar riffs are suburb as well as the vocals. Musically, I was tapping my foot and singing along by the eighth or ninth time hearing this album.

I will say, however, that if you are a fan of any of these songs or the original artists, you might have some issues (as I certainly did) with Campbell covering these. My advice would be to give Campbell a chance. And here is why: sometimes an artist covering a song on their album is not such a bad thing.

Think of Johnny Cash covering Trent Reznor’s “Hurt.” That was wildly amazing and it worked so well! I don’t think that Campbell will achieve that level of success, but I also think that every song he included on this album is of a deeply personal nature and meant something to him.

As an artist, to be successful, I believe you have to have a love for the material, and that certainly shines through.

Also, an country music icon like Glen Campbell paying homage to another generation’s, and even another genre’s, music is high praise indeed. Crossing the generations and genres is a challenge, and I think Campbell does a fine job. 

Give this a listen and a chance - you just might hear one of your favorite songs done in a slightly different way. Not highly recommended (I am still a fan of originality) but it is still worthy of consideration.