Send this 'bird' away

1965 was known as "the year of folk rock." Bands and artists like The Byrds, The Mamas and the Papas and Bob Dylan defined the year. But this era wasn't crowned complete until December of 1965, with the release of The Beatles' Rubber Soul. \nA couple months short of 40 years later, we get This Bird Has Flown, a tribute album featuring artists such as The Donnas, Dar Williams, Ben Harper, Sufjan Stevens, Ben Kweller, Ben Lee, the Cowboy Junkies and others. \nThe hardest part of critiquing a tribute album is determining what is important in covering a song. Everyone has their own opinion. Some may think it's recreating the original as closely as possible, while others may think changing the original dramatically is far more interesting. Personally, I prefer something that sounds close to the original, with maybe a little flare to make it unique. But I'm not teaching "Tribute Album 101," and alas, I digress.\nThe Donnas start off the album as it was meant to, with the upbeat riff of "Drive My Car." With the exception of the female voices, they recreate the original almost exactly. Other notable songs include Dar Williams' version of "You Won't See Me," which is sung with the intimacy of the original. Yonder Mountain String Band does a great job on George Harrison's "Think for Yourself," which lacks the fuzz bass of the original but captures the folk feel beautifully. Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals cover "Michelle," adding a predictable reggae feel which surprisingly works pretty well.\nThere are also some major misses. The Fiery Furnaces completely butcher "Norwegian Wood," adding some sort of weird organ noise and not even bothering to mimic Lennon's beautifully sung melody. Ben Lee covers arguably one of the most important songs on the album, "In My Life," which has also been referred to as one of the greatest songs ever written. If Lee had performed it originally, it never would have received such praise. Lee removes the familiar guitar interludes between verses, and sings the song painfully slow and quiet, turning it from a self-reflective musical masterpiece to a depressing solo with virtually no musical accompaniment. \nIf you're a serious Beatles fan, parts of this album could impress you and parts could enrage you. A casual fan may enjoy it much more and even prefer some covers over their original counterparts. For me, it was fun to listen to, but I'll stick with the original.