Boasting the kind of revolving door policy that’d support a thirdworld militia, it’s unsurprising that constant Lemonhead, Evan Dando,
has resorted to a covers album. I mean, chewing your way through over
15 band members can’t leave much time to actually practice tracks –
even if you have been going since the mid 80s, – and so ‘Varshons’ ,
nine year hiatus withstanding, has been born: one giant, real life
mixtape, ambling along at a pretty genial pace. Still, the premise of
a covers album is hardly something to get excited about even if the
songs in question classically flit between Leonard Cohen, Wire and
Gram Parsons.
Covers tend to either tentatively tread between ardent perfectionism
or brazen crucifixion. That The Lemonheads – currently numbering three
– have recycled songs peppering open mic nights at Nevada truckstops
without them sounding overly weather beaten is pleasantly surprising.
More dirty, weary laments as opposed to lazy and tired, Dando’s low,
bass rumbling burr sounds feral and wild, as though each track is
played out under cloudless frontier skies, the spectre of Johnny Cash
hanging heavy over the entourage. Hell, they even make ‘Beautiful’
sound almost poignant, engulfing it in a syrupy country drawl. IRoping
in Liv Tyler and Kate Moss on ‘Hey That’s No Way To Say Goodbye’ and
‘Dirty Robot’, respectively, adds some sparkle to the faded seaside
glamour, but ‘Varshons’ is still an album best reimagined being played
out the radio in the back of a Trans AM. More Almost Famous
sentimentality than High Fidelity fandom, Varshons is still a covers
mix worth keeping.