Tag Archives: covers album

SHANNON CURTIS – 80s Kids

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On 2024’s ‘Good To Me’, Shannon Curtis delivered ten slabs of synth pop that sounded so authentically 80s, you might even believe a few of the songs were rarities from the era. With the album released at a time where a lot of musicians appeared to be obsessed with the 90s, this even more retro sound hit like a musical ray of sunshine. At the album’s best, the bright sound – heavily reliant on unnatural sounding keys and a strong vocal – showcased some great choruses. The multi-voiced ‘Serenity’ could’ve been culled from an old teen film soundtrack; ‘Sweat & Butterflies’ worked a pulsing heart that had clearly been inspired by OMD’s ‘If You Leave’ and a couple of Fiction Factory numbers, and the title cut showcased a great contrast between big beats and a more sedate voice, ending the record in a slightly more thoughtful manner. Even with a couple of tunes adding slightly more of a light goth/dreampop reverb, this was a record that offered a lot of entertainment for the 80s obsessed listener.

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The Dandy Warhols to release covers collection ‘Pin Ups’ in March

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On 20th March 2026, The Dandy Warhols will release ‘Pin Ups’, a collection of reimagined cover tunes, presented on vinyl, CD and digital formats. The record – which obviously borrows its title from David Bowie’s much celebrated covers album from 1973 – contains recordings made over a number of years, and includes unreleased material. It finds the band putting their stamp on artists as diverse as The Cramps, Grateful Dead, Marilyn Manson and The Beatles.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Wish You Were Here: 50 Years Later

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In 2024, Pale Wizard Records did the unthinkable. They pulled together a bunch of underground rock bands and had them each contribute a track to a 50th anniversary tribute to Sparks’ career defining ‘Kimono My House’. Since none of the bands had much in common with Ron and Russell Mael’s distinctive and visionary sound, it shouldn’t have worked. With that record, Pale Wizard managed to pull off the even more unthinkable: they not only masterminded a very different take on an old classic, but they had the balls to know it would work on its own merits.

A year on, could they achieve similar greatness by asking some of the same faces to put their own stamp on Pink Floyd fan favourite ‘Wish You Were Here’? In terms of tall orders, that’s positively gargantuan when none of the clientele come from the school of prog rock. The featured artists don’t even have a “classic” sound in most cases. Nevertheless, everyone gives the material a square go, for better or worse.

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TRAVELS WITH BRINDLE – No. 1 In Heaven

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When covering other people’s material, there’s no point in phoning it in, and creating something that’s a flat but respectable reconstruction. It’s much better to make things your own, and re-imagine everything from the ground up – as with Type O Negative’s ‘Summer Breeze’ and Lalo Schifrin’s frankly bizarre disco rehash of the ‘Jaws’ theme, just to give a couple of great examples.

This concept isn’t lost on singer songwriter Chelsea Spear and her solo ukulele pop project Travels With Brindle. Their 2025 release ‘Number One In Heaven’ takes the bulk of the Sparks 1979 LP of the same name and melds it in her own image. Taking the six songs and stripping them down to basics, Spear allows for a closer inspection of some basic melodies. But does it work?

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SLOWER – Slower

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Slower. As the name implies, this band is all about the doom. However, this is doom with a twist. Bringing together members of Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Kylesa, Year of The Cobra and others, the performers are famous in their own right, but nowhere near as famous as Slower’s choice of material. This debut album features five Slayer classics, each one drastically reimagined as a timeless doom/sludge piece; five numbers that end up invariably sounding like more like Acid King than Kerry King. It seems inconceivable that speed driven bangers that sound tracked a generation’s metallic apocalypse could take on the stance of Electric Wizard and Witch Mountain, but behind their comical name, Slower have made such things a striking reality.

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