L.A. Guns

Covered In Guns (2010)

Track list:

01 - Pour Some Sugar on Me [Def Leppard Cover]
02 - Rock & Roll All Night [Kiss Cover]
03 - Crazy Bitch [Buckcherry Cover]
04 - Don’t Fear the Reaper [Blue Oyster Cult Cover]
05 - Check My Brain [Alice in Chains Cover]
06 - Cry Little Sister (Theme from the Lost Boys) [Gerald McMann Cover]
07 - Just Between You and Me [April Wine Cover]
08 - Rock’n Me [Steve Miller Band Cover]
09 - Break My Stride [Matthew Wilder Cover]
10 - Let It Rock [Kevin Rudolf Cover]
11 - Let There Be Rock [AC-DC Cover]
12 - I Love Rock N’ Roll [The Arrows Cover]
13 - Little St. Nick [Beach Boys Cover]

Covers albums… Hmmn, I’m never sure what to make of these beasts. Sure there have been some great ones in the past (Tesla), and some good angles on the theme (Rocksugar). At the end of the day it usually smells like a stop-gap measure, contractual obligation, or an exercise in preaching to the converted. Who would buy a covers album by a band they don't already own product by? Maybe a killer list of songs might sway you? Nah, not when most of the tracks here are so well-known.

LA Guns seem off to a reasonable start though: there are some true classics in the track list, a few interesting selections but also what seem like sure-fire losers in 'Break My Stride' and 'Little St. Nick'. This is of course the Phil Lewis version of the band just to clear that up before we begin. Let's investigate shall we?

The sound is pretty clean from the off but then we are kicking off with a classic Def Leppard song. To be honest it's pretty true to the original and that is sort of how we go with this one. Covers of songs that pretty much stay true to the originals with Phil's voice on top.

The running order too is a little suspect and doesn't flow too well. The classics sound good enough but the lesser known tunes just break the flow. I guess I prefer a covers album to either take a song and remould it to the band's own design; or say something about the band like what influenced them, what moulded them? Here you get none of those angles. All you get to know about the band is that they listened to the radio, like the songs we do, watched the Lost Boys and at least two of them (I'm guessing) bought a disco album in the past. The inclusion of a Christmas song in June is and will always remain a mystery...

Unlike some reviewers I don't particularly dislike this, but conversely it's hard to see me reaching for the CD case from the pile even in a few weeks from now. It's just OK and that's about it really... But yes the expected losers are losers...

I did go looking for my April Wine vinyl after a gap of some years shortly after too.

Rip the Covers Off from a few years back is a far superior album.

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