"I Know There's Something Going On" was a pop hit back in the early-1980's by ex-ABBA alumni Frida, in a very pop-orientated era and direction. It's easy to see how ABBA was popular and influenced so many kids of that generation, such that they grew up as singers they still had those roots in their system. Jorn and his band do an excellent job here of updating it for the modern age, and putting that heavier rock riff into the song to uphold the title of the album. It's done well. Not as well as the next song, which proves to be the best of the album. The excellent version of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" is a ripper, and probably the highlight of the album for me. While Kate's original version has always been one that I've admired, Jorn's version here takes the best bits of that, and enhances it with a great heavy riff and fantastic vocals from Jorn himself. This is a winner, and shows the better side of covering a pop song and making it your own. Add to this the excellent version of Foreigner's "Rev on the Red Line" and you have a pretty impressive opening to the album.
I am constantly surprised, as an Australian, that John Farnham is well enough known through European countries that his music has been an influence to them, and well enough that his music is covered by them. Jorn is the second artist, after Blind Guardian, who I have now heard cover Farnsy's hit song "You're the Voice". Given that having heard it for what felt like a thousand years on the radio when it was released in Australia in the late 1980's, it's a biased view I hold over how good this version of the song is. In fact, it is still difficult to listen to without feeling nauseous. Sorry guys.
One song that most definitely does not come up to scratch is the cover of Paul Stanley's solo hit "Live to Win". The original starred Stanley's wonderful vocals at their very best, and the song is a hit because of the energy he puts into the song and makes it a real anthem. On this version, Jorn doesn't go for the vocal copy (which he possibly couldn't replicate anyway), and we have a song that fluctuates between keys both vocally and musically, and the constant changes are the biggest hindrance to finding a happy medium. The extended solo break to close out the song does its best to hide the short fallings of this version, but to no avail. This is followed by Journey's memorable "Don't Stop Believing", another really tough song to take on vocally, given Steve Perry's original and unique recording. Still, giving Jorn his credit here, he makes this version his own without causing any damage to the memory of the original song.
You start treading on eggshells when you take on classic songs that are renown for their original performance and recording, that to try anything different with them would be seen as sacrilege. Unless of course you did it really, really, really well. Queen's "Killer Queen" is treated with the reverence it deserves, also given the status of the original singer as perhaps the greatest of all time. The song doesn't waver too far from the original, and Trond Holter's guitar sticks almost perfectly to Brian May's original, while Jorn's vocals are duly respectable of the shoes he is filling. Perhaps the bravest song Jorn takes on for this album is a cover of the Eagles' massive hit "Hotel California", a really tough challenge given the high esteem it carries through all genres of music. And to be honest, it's a bridge too far. Trying to take on Don Henley on this track is a big ask, and while Jorn's vocals here are fine and he tries to add his own arts to it to make it his own, and the guitars of Holter especially at the conclusion of the song are strong,
Of the final four songs on the album, two of them can be found on other Jorn releases. "Rainbow in the Dark" by Dio appeared on the album of that name, that acted as a singular tribute to the man who obviously influenced Jorn's career from the outset. It's a more than serviceable version. "Stormbringer" by Deep Purple was a bonus track on his Lonely Are the Brave album, and is a brilliant version of this classic song, highlighting all of the best parts of the song and giving it a modern touch up along the way. A terrific version. "Die Young" by Black Sabbath is another in the long line of Dio-related songs that Jorn has covered throughout his solo career. "The Final Frontier" by Iron Maiden was somewhat of a surprise, being as it was only released in recent years, and the number of other Maiden songs that he could have covered. However, this is the one he has chosen, and they do a reasonable job of the translation, the main opinion being of course that there is little chance of ever being able to do it better than Bruce Dickinson does.
The surprising diversity of artists covered here gives this album a fair chance of being played for a longer period than most cover albums will. My usual spiel with albums of cover songs is that while the novelty is still apparent then the album will be played and enjoyed. In the majority of cases, eventually the decision will be reached that the original version of the majority of these songs will always be the better one, and so this will go back to collecting dust on a shelf. This album probably isn't too much different. Apart from the excellent conversion of the opening two tracks, and the better than average treatment of the other songs here, they are still cover versions, and by and large you will go to the original. As a novelty piece though, this is a nice collection, and a reminder especially of the great voice that Jorn has.
Rating: "You're the voice try and understand it"... uuuuuggghh. 4/5
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