Rock

Everything about Dark Hope was screaming ‘No!’ at me. Opera singer covering rock songs? No, it never works, never ever. Well, I reckoned without the good taste of Fleming and producer/arranger David Kahne. They’ve re-interpreted fabulous contemporary songs by Band Of Horses, Muse, Death Cab For Cutie plus a sprinkling of classics from Jefferson Airplane, Peter Gabriel and Leonard Cohen. The acid test is, of course, can they bring anything new to Cohen’s chestnut ‘Hallelujah’? Yes they can, in spades. This one re-writes the crossover textbook and confirms that modern songwriting is as good as, if not better than it was in the so-called good old days

Sound Quality: 93%