Album: The Hotrats, Turn Ons (G&D)

The Hotrats offers Supergrass members Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey the opportunity to indulge themselves with a series of energetic covers of some of their favourite artists' songs, recorded with producer Nigel Godrich.

Turn Ons is their equivalent of Bowie's Pin Ups, sourced from later eras of pop innovation encompassing garage psychedelia, glam, punk, indie and even hip-hop. Oddly, given their name, there's nothing by Zappa, but his contemporaries are well represented through impressive versions of Pink Floyd's "Bike" and The Doors' "Crystal Ship" and a cover of the Velvets' "I Can't Stand It". Bowie's "Queen Bitch" fares better than Roxy's "Love Is The Drug", which lacks the original's crisply upholstered funk, while The Cure's "The Lovecats" seems to have been re-tooled with the bassline from "Radar Love". The punk-era material is more problematic: their "Damaged Goods" retains some of the Gang Of Four's brusque energy, despite underplaying the slashing guitar riff, but the acoustic guitar version of the Pistols' "EMI" lacks bite and bile. Weirdest of all, though, is a rap-free take on "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" sung in soul falsetto over a Neu!-style motorik groove, which just survives the transformation.

Download this I Can't Stand It; Crystal Ship; Bike; Queen Bitch