Once upon a time, albums of cover versions were something of a “go to” (along with hastily assembled live records or compilations with one or two new tracks) when an artist’s creative juices were running a bit dry. In recent times though, these stop-gaps seem to have been replaced with the remix album – because who really wants to give away all that lovely publishing income?
However, it seems that the covers album might be making something of a comeback in 2026. Already this year, the Damned have put out Not Like Everybody Else and even Willie Nelson has released Last Leaf on the Tree. The latest to join this trend is the Dandy Warhols, who have even appropriated the title of David Bowie’s own covers album from 1973.
Focusing on Generation X’s favourite alternative and indie bands, the Dandies have predominantly mined the 1970s and 1980s for their inspiration (with a sparse handful of the 17 tracks falling outside that period), taking in such musical deities as the Cramps (“Goo Goo Muck”), the Cure (“Primary”), the Damned (“Love Song”), the New York Dolls (“Jetboy”) and Dylan (“Lay Lady Lay”). Interestingly, there’s only band that is blessed with two financial injections to their pension fund and that’s somewhat unexpectedly the Cult (“Rain” and “She Sells Sanctuary”). That said, it’s gratifying that they haven’t been tempted to go down the pointless karaoke route of mimicking the original versions, but have instead embraced the songs’ spirit and filtered them through the Dandy Warhols’ own sensibilities – mainly but not exclusively a raw and menacing electroclash bite with woozy, semi-heard vocals from Courtney Taylor-Taylor or, in a couple of instances, Zia McCabe.
Clearly, Pin Ups isn’t a major artistic statement, but a nice temporary indulgence by Courtney Taylor-Taylor’s gang. However, now they’ve got it out of their system, it’s to be hoped that that they feel fully refreshed and will soon be ready to unleash some new songs of their own on the listening public.
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