Singer-songwriter turned Broadway composer Duncan Sheik will reinterpret a dozen ’80s alternative and synthpop classics this June with the release of Covers 80s, which will include new takes on old favorites by The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order, Love and Rockets, The Smiths and more.
Due out June 7, the 12-track album — which sounds reminiscent of Grant-Lee Phillips’ nineteeneighties — is actually an expanded version of an EP that Sheik released last fall; that collection featured his covers of Depeche Mode’s “Stripped,” Howard Jones’ “What Is Love,” Tears For Fears’ “Shout,” The Cure’s “Kyoto Song” and The Blue Nile’s “Stay.” (The “Stripped” and “Shout” covers can be streamed on Sheik’s site at the link below.)
The fleshed-out version of the album finds Sheik — who also is at work adapting Bret Easton Ellis’ ’80s splatterfest “American Psycho” for Broadway — tackling Love and Rockets’ “So Alive,” The Smiths’ “William It Was Really Nothing,” New Order’s “Love Vigilantes” and Japan’s “Gentlemen Take Polaroids,” among others.
STREAM: Duncan Sheik’s “Stripped” and “Shout” covers
See tracklist for Duncan Sheik’s ‘Covers 80s’ after the jump…
Tracklist: Duncan Sheik, Covers 80s
1. “Stripped” (Depeche Mode)
2. “Hold Me Now” (Thompson Twins)
3. “Love Vigilantes” (New Order)
4. “Kyoto Song” (The Cure)
5. “What Is Love” (Howard Jones)
6. “So Alive” (Love and Rockets)
7. “Shout” (Tears for Fears)
8. “Gentlemen Take Polaroids” (Japan)
9. “Life’s What You Make of It” (Talk Talk)
10. “William It Was Really Nothing” (The Smiths)
11. “Stay” (The Blue Nile)
12. “The Ghost In You” (The Psychedelic Furs)
God help us!
80s – The Granola Versions . . .
This Depeche Mode cover is the best Depeche Mode cover I’ve heard in a LONG time. And I’ve heard a lot of Depeche Mode covers. The Tears for Fears cover is good too. I’ll definitely be picking this album up when it comes out.
He has put his own take on the songs, not merely exactly the same music, and singing in the same style.
Looks like Duncan and I were listening to the same stuff back in the day.
It sounds… not good to these old ears, but–Japan?–god love ’em, the man has taste. EVERYONE covers The Cure, Depeche Mode, New Order. Too bad he didn’t tackle later Talk Talk,
The music sounds just like those lullaby albums that hip parents can buy for their kids. I don’t need soothing.