Mark Ronson: Version : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Who the hell is Mark Ronson? A superstar DJ from London who makes big-beat dance tracks with cameos from Brit-pop stars -- what is this, the freakin' Nineties? He's just scored a huge club hit with his nipple-hardeningly brilliant cover of the Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," with R&B vocalist Daniel Merriweather surging into the Supremes' "You Keep Me Hangin' On." Weird, but it works -- and it's a Number Two hit in the U.K., where they still have radio. Version is an audacious set of similar left-field covers (Radiohead's "Just," the Jam's "Pretty Green") turned into dance-soul tracks -- Lily Allen sings the Kaiser Chiefs' "Oh My God" like she thinks it's Bill Withers' "Use Me," Amy Winehouse turns a Zutons obscurity into Motown, and Robbie Williams gives it up to a beloved Madchester oldie, the Charlatans' "The Only One I Know."