The Lemonheads: Varshons

The Lemonheads: Varshons Varshons is the second album by the newly reformed Lemonheads, their first since 2006's The Lemonheads. Unlike The Lemonheads, Varshons is simply a record of covers. The album includes covers of songs by Wire, GG Allin, Townes Van Zandt, Leonard Cohen, and Christina Aguilera. Dando has always been a fan of covers. Lemonhead's biggest hit was their cover of "Mrs. Robinson" released in 1992. But some of their earliest singles were covers including "Different Drum" originally by the Stone Poneys, "Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now" originally by Teresa Brewer, and "Luka" originally by Suzanne Vega. Unlike those early covers, the offerings on Varshons are more esoteric and stylistically varied. The album starts auspiciously. The first half of the album is entirely made up of acoustic based tracks. That trend breaks with the seventh track on the album, "Dirty Robot". The song is a cover of Dutch electronic duo Arling & Cameron and features vocals by Kate Moss (who knew she could sing?). The track is pretty faithful to the original with its full on keyboard and dance beat onslaught. That track is followed by a cover of July's "Dandelion Seeds". The track sounds more like a Jimi Hendrix song with its bold electric guitar riff and tambourine heavy percussion section. The album closes out with a cover of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful". The track is done acoustically and stays pretty true to the original. I was certain the song would sound tongue-in-cheek, but Dando really milks the emotion of the song. In the end, Varshons probably isn't the album Lemonheads' fans wanted. The band has been reunited for four years now and all they have to show for it is one full length of new material. Although the band promises a new full length of original material is on the way Varshons just doesn't have the clout to ease any of that hunger. Rating: 4.2/10 MP3: The Lemonheads "Beautiful" Buy: iTunes, Get the vinyl at Insound