Around the time the time that he retired his Ziggy Stardust alter ego, David Bowie put out an album of covers, done in a Glam/Proto-punk style. This included tunes by the Yardbirds, the Kinks and various other Garage Rock bands that were somewhat outside the mainstream at the time.
Fifty years or so later (yes, really), Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and Neal X, most famously of Sigue Sigue Sputnik, have put together a new outfit with Mat Hector and Ben Ellis of Iggy Pop’s touring band and James Beaumont, called The Loveless, and have done the same – albeit with a couple of fine original tunes for good measure. They’ve even covered some of the bands that Bowie acknowledged on Pin Ups.
Anyone who caught their mini-tour in the run up to Christmas, will know that the Loveless are no shoddy pub rock covers band, but have some real bite in their sound, as well as a serious brass section for added punch. This is particularly evident on their own “Wild in the Streets”, Spectrum’s go-go-tastic “I’ll Be Gone”, and their version of Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels”.
Elsewhere, there are fine takes on the Kinks’ outsider anthem “I’m Not Like Everybody Else”, Max Frost and the Troopers’ trippy “Shape of Things to Come” and the Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ seminal acid-drenched psychedelic Garage rocker “You’re Gonna Miss Me”. There’s even room for ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s guest vocals on Bo Diddley’s hip-swinging “Pills”, which gives more than a nod to the New York Dolls’ version with some fierce harmonica soloing.
In short, the Loveless are a fine proposition both live and on this disc. It just has to be hoped that Marc Almond and Neal X can get their heads together to knock out some more original material, because both “Wild in the Streets” and the sharp and snarky “Nothing at All” suggest that could yet be plenty more worthwhile tunes in their back pocket.
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