Spygenius

Blows Their Covers

Big Stir Records

Why this album is more than another covers album is that it’s also a tribute to college rock, its roots, and how they inform today's music. It lives on, wonderfully so, on this album.

Every cover on here is great, but there are a few that stand out. Plasticsoul's “Therapy” could be about therapy or drugs. On Madness’s “Michael Caine” the band puts their own spin on the line “I am Michael Caine,” as the actor himself voiced in the original version, by making it the coda. Squeeze’s “Is That Love” is as good as the original. "Griselda,” originally by Michael Hurley and the Unholy Model Rounders, is a lot of fun to hear. Gene Clark’s “So You Say You Lost Your Baby” is better than the original.

But the best is the Soft Boys' “Queen Of Eyes.” The late Matthew Seligman had input before he passed away of Covid last year; now it’s a tribute, and what a tribute it is! With the tempo slightly faster, it packs even more of a punch by kicking the song into overdrive.

If you like college rock and want an update on it, to relive how it was and is, or it’s new to you and you want a starting point, this album is for you.

Andrea Weiss