Ok, "covers band" might be a bit harsh. The songs have various degrees of reworking, and most have becoming distinct songs in their own right.
Cha Cha Twist trades the R&B style for a garage-rock sound, yet maintaining the heart of the groovy 1960s rock appeal. The guitar licks and cheeky (for the time) lyrics round out this infectious little pop song.
Speaking of infectious, Putty (In Your Hands) is guaranteed to get you dancing. Regardless, the gritty edge of Detroit Cobra's version puts a nice new spin on a great song.
While most of the "garage rock" conversions involve increasing the tempo, Easier To Cry actually slows down the Shangri-Las to create a brooding blues. The result is fantastic, and adds some great variety to the album.
The band should be greatly praised for someone seeing the potential diamond in the rough that was found amongst the awful wall-of-noise grunge of The Oblivians' Bad Man. But the lyrics are fantastic, and with some slight massaging they've turned the riffs into a catchy 1960s tribute. The unique drumming is a particular highlight, breaking up the song with wonderful contrast to each section. This song is a highlight of the album for me.
Midnight Blues is an awesome prowling blues. It's just so understated and cool. They've taken the original, bashed it around to knock off the pop-music polish, then dragged it through the mud; and the result is brilliant.
The changes to Hittin' On Nothing are actually quite subtle. But enough to make a fantastic garage-rock adaption of a great soul song.
The frenetic feel to Out Of This World makes for a nicely unique song, both with the original and Detroit Cobras version. In this case, it feels like a minor "updating" of the original to suit modern fashions, but nonetheless it's a great song. And this approach also works well for the super-catchy hit Breakaway.
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