Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Sometimes a re-imagining, a do over or a complete overall on the original is a piece of art too far; it achieves very little in terms of appreciation and it only adds the cynic the thought, that even with the best intentions on behalf of the artist, that it is only being done for commercial gain. Of course in a world where many artists are controlled by the whims of the Editor or the Producer, the chance to take the original apart and offer the artist’s view from the centre of the tornado is all too compelling but still that thought remains, it festers and grows teeth and in the end the sound continues the same.

Such is the fate that seems to have befallen Converge with their re-mastering, reproducing of their album You Fail Me. The sense of obliteration, of desperation in the soul and the titanic struggle that bogs down the heart and mind is still there but it doesn’t offer the listener a new perspective, a tantalising insight to the ageing process or how Time in all in glory, and often vanity, deals with how an artist can actually change the original.

You Fail Me was always an enjoyable sojourn in the genre but it didn’t necessarily require buffeting, sometimes taking a new brush to an old master can actually spoil the memory of what lay before it. Finding yourself on a suitably idyllic desert island and finding a flaw with the way the sand gets into the crevices and into the gaps between your toes does not make it suddenly not make it the place to be to clear your head and become one with yourself.

The album still retains its highs and lows, its own peaks and troughs and is perhaps just one in the end for those who have never heard any of the original music, the keen collectors or those with Time to decipher the key notes changes or anger that sits at the heart of self expression, in which case the album fully deserves to be recognised as a very good contributor to the world of music; however sometimes it is best to find the original copy, whether it is in your collection or you go and hammer on the door of the person that you loaned it to, because the point surely of existence is that the first effort is always the one most admired.

Ian D. Hall