Mark Ronson "Version" (#2 UK, #129 US)

[busyboy]

Mark Ronson Recruits Lily Allen, ODB for Album

Mark Ronson-- DJ, producer, Allido Records co-founder, and friend of everyone from Christina Aguilera and Jimmy Fallon to Ghostface Killah and Lily Allen-- has announced that the title of his next pop-culture-cannibalizing full-length will be Version and that it will come out April 16 in the UK.

Allen and the bigger-in-Britain Robbie Williams both appear on Version, as does Allido's Daniel Merriweather, who contributes vocals to a version of the Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" that Ronson mashes up with the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On". Explaining the concept for Version in a press release, Ronson said, "With my first album, I had all these people like Mos Def and M.O.P. guesting. This time it's not about that. Despite the big names... the songs here are the guest stars. With Version, I've taken these songs that I love and turned them into Motown/Stax 70s versions."

Ronson will precede the album with the release of the limited edition, double A-side single "Toxic"/"God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" 10" on January 29 via Columbia in the UK, on which he turns in lounge-ready versions of Britney Spears' and Coldplay's tracks. Ronson has made both tracks as well as a subtle glockenspiel-and-trumpet-adding remix of Lily Allen's "Smile"-- that he hopes to include on Version if she lets him-- available on his MySpace.

Ronson foregoes Chris Martin's vocals on his version of "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face", instead getting some pep-rally-ready horns to play the vocal melody on a track that's a little bit surf and a little bit ska. For "Toxic", Ronson replaces Spears' vocals with schmaltzy singing and the late ODB's show-stealing verses, which include to-the-point lines like, "I don't want to go back to the police station./ They're trying to send Dirt on a long vacation," and, "f**k the pussy 'til it's orange like Ernie and Bert."

We mean no disrespect, but step your Sesame Street game up, Russell. Bert is yellow!

[busyboy]

Mark Ronson says The Smiths approved of cover. Morrissey 'liked vocal'

Mark Ronson has said that The Smiths have responded positively to his cover of their classic track 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'.

The song is featured on Ronson's 'Version' album, is released on April 16.

However the cover has drawn criticism from the likes of Arctic Monkeys, who berated the track.

Writing on his Myspace blog Ronson defended himself, claiming the only people who matter are into the song.

"When I recorded the original demo of 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before' ...the first thing I did was send it to Morrissey and Marr immediately... I needed to know if they would be alright with it, basically like a kid showing his parents his finger painting for their approval," he wrote.

"It took a long time to hear back from them, but when I found out that Morrissey liked it, and especially liked Daniel's (Merriweather) vocal, you can imagine how I felt when (Johnny) Marr approved it as well - but I don't know his exact thoughts. The man who co-wrote my favourite song of all time gave (his) blessing to this new interpretation."

The DJ added that he was not defending his track, but wanted to demonstrate his motivation, writing: "This is not an apology but a way of showing respect for people who love The Smiths like I do."

The original version appeared on The Smiths' final album, 1987's 'Strangeways Here We Come'.

Meanwhile the DJ has just been added to this Saturday's (April 14) line-up for London club Chalk.

[vinyl]

I can't wait for this oneeee.
It's out April 17th in America, I think.

[busyboy]

It has an April 17 release date for the US, but on amazon.com it's listed as import...

[vinyl]

Ugh, I hope we get it in Canada.

[busyboy]

Amazon Canada...

[vinyl]

It says April 19th.
I guess I'll just have to check in the record store haha.
Besides, my local HMV usually has quite a few imports.

[busyboy]

The album's nice, quite jaw-dropping. Too bad the sound of the songs displays little diversity.

Personal faves: "Oh My God", "Toxic", "Valerie" and "Pretty Green". Last but not least, as soon as I recognised the cover of "AMY" by Ryan Adams I started ROFLMFAO!

[Pulse]

There's an EP of Stop Me on iTunes (The USA store)

[busyboy]

Mark Ronson - 'Version'
(Wednesday April 18, 2007 2:11 PM )

Released on 16/04/07
Label: SonyBMG

Now that the age of the superstar DJ is well and truly over - Pacha and other quaint, Brit-rave outposts aside - that former perennial backroom boy, the producer has stepped centre stage. It's an odd phenomenon, but entirely reasonable when you consider the part desk masters like Timbaland, Pharrell, Swiss Beatz, Kanye West and the rest have played in moulding well, pretty much everyone in the hip hop/R&B pantheon, with their knob-twiddling tentacles daily reaching ever deeper and more determinedly into chart pop territory.

Producers ploughing the indie dance furrow keep a far lower profile, the last UK DJ/producer to really blow both expectations and speakers being Richard X, although his mash-ups were so widely mimicked that the power of the originals quickly evaporated. London-born New York resident Mark Ronson is the newest kid on the block, although he's been around for a while; he delivered his debut in 2003, performed the production honours on Robbie Williams' (grisly) "Rudebox" album and is responsible for most of both Lily Allen's debut and Amy Winehouse's second LP.

"Version", then is - as the title suggests - a collection of interpretive covers rather than remixes and the buzz about the supposedly post-modern pizzazz of Ronson's second effort has been building for months. For no good reason, as it turns out. Despite its wealth of talented guests - Mlles Allen and Winehouse and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard among them - the album is disappointingly short on spark, spunkiness and style, relying instead on novelty for impact. Making maximum use of (entirely capable) retro soulsters The Dap Kings, Ronson gives almost every track the Stax/'70s Motown treatment and this uniformity is the album's main problem.

Rather than letting each individual tune suggest interpretative possibilities, "Version" (as the singular noun implies), imposes a blanket aesthetic and it's a blanket that becomes heavier and more utilitarian as the LP progresses. The Smiths' terrific "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" (which segues into Dozier & Holland's "You Keep Me Hangin' On") is perhaps the strongest track here, although singer Santo Gold enlivens a brass-skronked, neo-baggy take on The Jam's "Pretty Green" and Ms Winehouse's insouciant rasp is always welcome.

Who in Lucifer's name, though, wants to hear Robbie Williams' weedy wittering on "The Only One I Know"? What might brass squawks add to Radiohead's "Just", aside from inappropriate novelty? Since when did The Zutons' clunky pub anthem "Valerie" become a "modern classic" worthy of reappraisal?

More importantly, why the hell is Ronson being applauded as a wunderkind for basically recycling big beat and hiring some horns? LOL...

If this is what's currently floating the boats New York's hipsters, they're frankly welcome to him.

Rating: 5/10. Review by Sharon O'Connell

[busyboy]

^ I still think it's a nice album, nothing more nothing less. I would even give it 6/10, nothing more, nothing less.

[jaxxalude]

It's a 7/10 album. For a strictly covers album, it shows the right amount of inventiveness and respect for the originals it should require. And really, I am one to think that Ronson's take on Radiohead's "Just" (which I'm sure some of the people here already knew from that head-rolling, sometimes brilliant Radiohead BBE tribute album) is one to rival the original. It's just not every day you realize how Radiohead actually have the funk and the groove in their music since early on.

[busyboy]

NME review

Mark Ronson is the producer de jour who's enhanced the careers of Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen. The New York scenester also happens to be the guy who DJ'd at TomKat's wedding. And so into this modern ball of contradictions comes his second album. A collection of covers of modern classics, his choices are faultless and his sense of fun is very apparent - whether it's the brilliant version of The Smiths' 'Stop Me...' reimagined as a dark soul ballad aided by Daniel Merriweather, The Jam's 'Pretty Green' as a CSS-style danceathon or Allen's emotional take on Kaisers' 'Oh My God'. The trick doesn't always work, however, as takes on songs by Ryan Adams and Maximo Park prove. But for its irresistible sense of fun, 'Version' shouldn't be ignored.

Priya Elan

DOWNLOAD CHOICE: 'Oh My God'

[busyboy]

Debuts at #2 in the UK. Congrats!

[busyboy]

Out today in the US!

[busyboy]

Metascore based on 11 reviews.

[busyboy]

Mark Ronson announces new tour
Lily Allen collaboration to be released

Mark Ronson has announced details of a new tour kicking off on October 12 at Liverpool's Carling Academy.

The super producer is also set to release his collaboration with Lily Allen - their version of Kaiser Chiefs 'Oh My God' - on July 16.

Ronson will play:

Liverpool Carling Academy (October 12)
Manchester Academy 1 (13)
Newcastle Carling Academy (14)
Glasgow ABC (16)
Birmingham Carling Academy (18)
Leeds University (19)
Bournemouth Opera House (20)
London Shepherd's Bush Empire (25, 26)
Norwich UEA (28)
Portsmouth Pyramid (29)
Bristol Carling Academy (30)

[busyboy]

Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen, More Do Their Versions Of Songs For DJ Mark Ronson
Producer's LP includes covers of Coldplay, Smiths, Radiohead tracks.

By Jim Cantiello

NEW YORK — Obsessed with Coldplay's "God Put a Smile Upon Your Face" but wish it were booty-shakeable? That was the predicament facing DJ Mark Ronson, who loved the midtempo Chris Martin tune but knew it would clear a dance floor quicker than you can say "make trade fair."

But the budding producer — recently acclaimed for his work with Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen — wasn't keen on simply adding a house beat to an existing Coldplay song.

"As a DJ, sometimes you get bored," Ronson said. "You make remixes, mash-ups. But I'm a big music nerd, so I was like, 'Let's just do whole covers from scratch!' "

The bopping Coldplay reinterpretation is just one of 11 funkified covers Ronson whipped up for his new album, Versions. Tracks by the Jam, Kasabian and even Britney Spears are also infused with new Ronson flavor.

To handle vocal duties, Ronson enlisted "people [he] was working with at the time." Therefore, Lily Allen rocks the Kaiser Chiefs' "Oh My God," Robbie Williams warbles a Charlatans tune, and in a track originally featured on a 2006 Radiohead tribute CD, Phantom Planet's Alex Greenwald does his best Thom Yorke impression on a reggae-inspired "Just." Ronson even scored an unreleased Ol' Dirty Bastard rap for a fresh take on Spears' "Toxic."

Sure, Ronson grabbed current "it" girl Amy Winehouse for a Motown-ish Zutons cover, but it's an unknown singer, Daniel Merriweather, whose soulful vocals might steal the spotlight. Ronson and Merriweather's version of the Smiths' "Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before" — the new track is simply called "Stop Me" — has exploded overseas and is just now getting the single treatment here in the U.S.

"We made that song so different from the original," Merriweather told MTV News at a recent event at the Hard Rock Cafe. So different, in fact, that while Merriweather is dropping a record of original songs in the States next year, he's not worried that his first mark on America will be a cover song. "I don't know if people over here know the Smiths that well. I didn't really know the Smiths that well myself. [Regardless] I think we made it our own song."

The U.K. success of Version, which has been in record shops there since April, has Ronson beside himself. "I'm really proud if it," he said. "It's sort of surprising to see how well it's doing because it was just made out of nowhere!"

But any Anglophiles who ran to the import rack for the U.K. version might want to take another trip to the store on July 10 when Ronson's LP finally lands on U.S. shores.

"There's gonna be some bonus stuff," Ronson promised. "Busta Rhymes just got on a remix of 'Oh My God,' " he gushed, before doing a pretty spot-on impression of Busta's signature delivery. "It's classic Busta Rhymes. I knew I wanted to put it out there."

With an album's worth of high-profile covers under his belt, Ronson's well-suited for his biggest collaboration yet.

"Bob Dylan's putting out a greatest-hits album and it's the first time he's allowed anyone to take any of his original tracks, so I had [frequent backing band] the Dap-Kings play over this old solo Bob Dylan record ['Most Likely You Go Your Way I'll Go Mine']. It's really cool."

And you thought remixing the Smiths was crazy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The album didn't chart on any Billboard chart.

Video for "Oh My God" with Lily.

Metascore based on 13 reviews...

[vinyl]

The video is cute. :)

[CammyCan]

Is the album out in America? I checked my local Best Buy and it wasn't there, and that store usually has everything.

[busyboy]

^ It was released on June 12 in the US.

[busyboy]

Flowered up

She's the pop starlet from LDN. He's the pop producer and socialite from NYC. Together, Lily Allen and Mark Ronson are music's mouthiest couple. Peter Robinson runs for cover

Looking for a nice frock for today's photo shoot, Lily Allen walked into one shop in Ladbroke Grove and saw the assistant virtually dive across the room in an attempt to stop the Amy Winehouse CD playing in the background. She arrives back at the shoot and immediately starts discussing the possibility of gastric bypass surgery due to being "fat", then announces that it is all "off the record", even though she will post the whole thing on her MySpace blog within 48 hours. Mark Ronson, enjoying unexpectedly huge success with his Version album, seems less besieged by life, chatting happily about Prince parties and meeting Mani. She is the sort-of demure English rose. He is the smart-talking New Yorker. They are Dempsey and Makepeace of pop and today, On the eve of this weekend's Glastonbury festival Lily Allen and Mark Ronson seem like the best of friends ...

To kick things off, please introduce each other to the Guide.

Lily: This is Mark Ronson and he is an overrated, over-hyped pop producer from New York City. He's basically a DJ.

Mark: I think Lily Allen is one of the most gifted pop melody writers of her generation.

Lily: ONE OF? Who are the others? (Guffaws)

Mark: Anyway, Lily and I are friends even though I've never done anything nice for her.

When and where did you first meet?

Lily: It was at [Notting Hill club night] YoYo.

Mark: Yes, you put that smiley face pin badge on my really expensive leather jacket. I was almost crying.

Lily: I told Mark I was a singer and he went, "Oh, give me a CD then".

What was on the CD?

Lily: Smile, and a couple of demos from when I was signed to Warners.

Mark: I actually had to ask you twice for the CD.

Lily: Oh come on - you were not interested at ALL!

Mark: But then I listened to it on the plane, and ...

Lily: No you didn't! You listened to it about six months later!

Mark: BUT I WAS ON A PLANE. So anyway, I asked Lily if I could play it on my radio show, and then I asked her to come out to my studio [in New York] and sing Oh My God for my album.

Lily: NO! You asked me to suggest some songs for your album, then you gave all the good ones to other people! Then you went, "Oh, you can have the Kaiser Chiefs". THANKS! And then I said, "Oh, can you do some stuff for my album?". And you said, "Yeah, for $200,000". Hahahaha!

Busta Rhymes is on the new version of Oh My God. Was he expensive?

Mark: Well, as soon as I knew it'd be a single I called him up ... I thought he might not get it, but he understood it immediately. He gets about $60,000 every time he rhymes on a record!

Lily: $60,000 isn't much.

Mark: It's kind of a lot, Lily.

How much did you pay him?

Mark: Erm, something in the neighbourhood of a nice car.

Lily: Bentley or Golf?

Mark: Let's say a second hand Bentley. He got arrested half an hour after he left the studio ... (Distracted by mark on Lily's arm) Are you self-harming? What's this?

Lily: Yeah, I'm self-harming - I just want to be Amy Winehouse.

Mark: AHEM! You see THAT'S why you walk into a shop and the people behind the counter turn Amy's music off! You've got beef Tourette's!

Who's the worst drunk?

Lily: Me.

Mark: Yes.

Lily: I get really aggressive when I'm drunk. None of my label bosses will take me out any more because after one glass of champagne I'm standing up going "And another fucking thing! People like you are ruining music! You're ruining our country! Let me do it and I'll fix it!"

Would either of you say that you had normal childhoods?

Mark: I'll never say I had a normal childhood. My dad would manage bands - I'd come down in the middle of the night and Keith Moon was there playing air drums. That's not a normal childhood.

Lily: For the first 11 or so years of my life things were, well, not so nice, and we lived on a council estate. The thing is, I'm proud of being middle class now - my mum was working class, as was my dad, and they worked really fucking hard to provide me with what I had. Well, my mum did. It's funny when Lady Sovereign said that thing about me, "She doesn't have to work as hard as me because her dad's Keith Allen". Do you know what, Lady Sovereign? HAVE my dad. Go on! I'd love to see how many people buy your records. Go on! Take him!

Having said that, your first deal did come about because of your dad ...

Lily: Yeah, and it didn't work. It was rubbish folk music - my dad and another guy wrote it all. Then it didn't happen. Things only worked for me when I worked really, really hard myself.

Well done, Lily. Do you think the two of you would ever have met without having come from privileged backgrounds?

Lily: Probably not. You bump into people in LA, and they go "Oh, it's such a small world" and really it's not - it's just that you all go to the same places where you spend pounds 7 on a drink. We're bumping into each other in the middle of Ghana.

Mark: At the same time the reason we met is that I was DJing at YoYo. And so we could easily have met anyway. While I shouldn't care those exaggerated myths do just make me cringe. It's all stuff like "You hung out with Stella McCartney and had picnics with Michael Jackson".

Did you have picnics with Michael Jackson?

Mark: No. I did have a sleepover once ...

Lily: WHAT?

Mark: Er, yeah, I did. It was at Sean Lennon's house ... And ...

Lily: YOU DIDN'T! Did he do anything to you?

Mark: Oh, this is just going to get ridiculous. Thing is, Sean was friends with Michael Jackson when he was growing up and when we were about 12 years old he was like, "Michael Jackson's coming over tonight". I remember turning on Channel J which is the public access channel and ...

Lily: ... and Michael Jackson unzipped your trousers and ...

Mark: No, and so Channel J had this picture of this girl with her top off and Michael went (handbag action) "OOOH! Turn it OFF!" And me and Sean were like, "Why? This is great!".

What time did you go to bed?

Mark: We went to bed at one o'clock and we closed the window because there was a draught and he didn't want it to interfere with his voice. He slept on the floor.

Lily: FUCKING HELL. (Clapping like an excited seal) Ronson! I can't believe you slept with Michael Jackson!

Mark: Nothing happened!

Mark, is Stop Me still attracting hate mail from Smiths fans?

Mark: Not recently. I got two things from this little 15-year-old boy, going, "I want to stab you in the eye ..."

Lily: He phoned me up asking about what to do! I get things like "Give me a grand and I won't slit your mum's throat". So cheers for that. I've got five mobile phones because of all the hate phone calls. "I'm going to kidnap your dog." Please.

What don't you like about each other?

Mark: Lily's one of the few people I'm naturally intimidated by.

Lily: Why?

Mark: Not in a bad way ... But you're a bit "cult of personality" ...

Lily: No I'm not! People say I'm a complete bitch and I'm not, I'm just really insecure and when people meet me I'm just ... not very good at it. But I'm a nice person. I bought Mark a kebab only today.

What has Mark done for you, Lily?

Lily: He definitely needs to do more. It was my birthday the other week and I still don't have a present from him. One time I was on the fire escape of Mark's studio in New York, crying because I'd split up with my boyfriend. He came out, saw me crying, and went back inside! Hahahaha!

Mark: I'm not Joan Collins!

Lily: What?

Mark: Hang on. I'm still trying to think of something nice I've done for you. There must be something.

Lily: Mark, there's nothing.

[JayBoozer]

I love "Oh My God" :)

[vinyl]

rofl I love that interview!

[WotUNeed]

I have been checking my local stores (Best Buy, FYE) since this came out, but either I keep checking at the wrong times or they're just not bothering with this. Too bad, I was looking forward to it. I guess I'll have to wait till I can do some online ordering.

And great interview there. LOL

[busyboy]

Mark Ronson wants to work with 'The Mighty Boosh' boys
The producer also has his eyes on James Bond theme

Mark Ronson has announced that he wants to work on a song with the duo behind hit comedy 'The Mighty Boosh'.

The DJ/producer has declared he hopes to turn one of their five-second skits into a chart hit.

"One of my favourite comedy shows is 'The Mighty Boosh'," Ronson told XFM. "I had the pleasure of meeting one of the stars, Noel Fielding, stumbling off a muddy bus from Glastonbury."

Ronson then explained he wanted to work on a song called 'Captain Cabinet', which the pair created as a fictitious TV theme.

"There's a song from one of the shows - it's only four seconds long so they'd have to write more lyrics for it - but it's called 'Captain Cabinet' and basically it just goes: 'Captain Cabinet, Trapped in a cabinet, Can he get out? Will he get out? Course he will'[/b]," explained Ronson.

"It could be brilliant. I could turn it into musical gold. There's some other good songs from 'The Mighty Boosh' I could work with, they're obviously quite musical people."

The star added that he also was keen on working the next James Bond theme too.

"It's my dream to produce a song for a James Bond film so I told Amy [Winehouse] that if she gets offered the Bond thing, as has been rumoured, then she'd better let me produce the song, or I'll never talk to her again," he declared.

[busyboy]

baileyboy said:

Is the album out in America? I checked my local Best Buy and it wasn't there, and that store usually has everything.

19forever said:

I have been checking my local stores (Best Buy, FYE) since this came out, but either I keep checking at the wrong times or they're just not bothering with this. Too bad, I was looking forward to it. I guess I'll have to wait till I can do some online ordering.

And great interview there. LOL

Hmmm, I've just found a July 10 US release date online for Version, maybe that's the reason you can't find it? Perhaps amazon.com got it before other retailers?

[busyboy]

Hmmm, looks like the release date is actually next Tuesday. Stream the album at his MySpace page.

[cbmc99]

I heard the album, Valerie is my JAM! I love it :)

[busyboy]

^ Yeah, it sounds like a lost Supremes track, if Diana had sounded like, well, Amy... ;)