release date: Jun. 27, 2006
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,62]
producer: Grant-Lee Phillips
label: Zoë Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 2. "Age of Consent" (New Order) - 3. "The Eternal" (Joy Division) - 7. "Under the Milky Way" (The Church) - 9. "So. Central Rain" (R.E.M.) - 10. "Boys Don't Cry" (The Cure) - 11. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" (The Smiths) (4 / 5)
4th studio album by Grant-Lee Phillips as the follow-up to his so far best album Virginia Creeper (Feb. 2004) is a pure covers album. All tracks are Phillips' heavily altered versions of covers all from the 1980s, as indicated in the title. And it's not only altered music, it's transformed into an acoustic alt. folk and singer / songwriter style regardless the style or genre of the original song.
At first I found it too strange, and rejected it as over-the-hill, possibly because I'm very familiar with the originals, but then his versions definitely have something else to offer. They actually turn out more as new compositions regardless the lyrical and musical sources. When I first began listening to the individual songs as Phillips' own, they seem better 'cause they are no longer lingering in a post-punk period but are flourishing on a new set of terms. I like it - it's really good.
[ allmusic.com 3,5 / 5 stars ]
