Shonen Knife – Osaka Ramones
Cover albums often carry an air of redundancy, beckoning the question: why bother? For punk-pop trio Shonen Knife, the motivation is to mark their 30th Anniversary with Osaka Ramones, a tribute album to seminal punk band The Ramones, who heavily influenced their formation and early output. Though as the first chorus of their take on the New Yorker’s 1976 debut single, Blitzkrieg Bop kicks in, it‘s rather apparent that Shonen Knife are unable – or due to their devotion – unwilling to mess with their heroes' legacy in any significant way.
In fact across the thirteen tracks, which include We Want the Airwaves, Scattergun and Beat on the Brat, the only real divergence is that of Naoko Yamano’s accented punk yelp for Joey Ramone’s, well, accented punk snarl. Aye, it’s a well executed labour of love with enough to pique the interest of diehard fans, though for the rest, there are far superior albums with which to start your discovery of these two influential bands. [Paul Neeson]