Pitchfork

Covers albums can be more than a little indulgent. But they can also give listeners some salacious insight into what makes a songwriter tick; it's kind of like perusing the bookshelves of your favorite author. Composed of covers from the band's EPs and singles, the lovingly compiled Lunafied, which is available exclusively as a digital download, works precisely in that way. There's scarcely an essential interpretation or jaw-dropping overhaul of any of the material. But it's an opportunity to observe the kinds of songs Dean Wareham is attracted to in one tidy package and play connect-the-dots with a host of diverse influences.

Wareham has always been a fan of covers. With Galaxie 500, he recorded hazy renditions of songs by Young Marble Giants, New Order, Yoko Ono, the Modern Lovers, and, of course, the Velvet Underground. Perhaps unsurprisingly, both the Velvets and the Modern Lovers figure among the 14 covers on Lunafied. Wareham's allegiance to the three-chord composition places him in a logical lineage with the work of Lou Reed and Velvets-obsessive Jonathon Richman. On "Ride into the Sun", taken from the Slide EP, Wareham and Co. manage to transform the Loaded-era outtake into a song more typical of the Velvet Underground. In its version, Luna dumps the organ, the chorus and the "It's hard to live in the city" coda for a slow-paced and sprawling workout full of searching guitar solos.

As the album's title suggests, Luna does make the songs it covers its own, even if the band's reworking of the material is often faithful. For example, effects-laden guitars stand in for vocal harmonies on Blondie's "In the Flesh" and Wareham's modest, nasal delivery replaces Harry Nilsson's emotive croon on "Everybody's Talkin'", but the essence of the originals remain in tact. One exception is Luna's take on Beat Happening's "Indian Summer", which, like "Ride Into the Sun", stretches the song out into an epic guitar workout. In this version, Wareham speak-sings the wistfully nostalgic lyrics, letting the imagery sink in over expansive layers of guitar. By contrast, Calvin Johnson's croaking, unimpassioned delivery in the original made his words sound like haphazard rhymes, undermining the sweetly innocent portrait of summer that they paint.

While there is plenty of variation in the songs, which range from Donovan to Wire, a few patterns in Wareham's choices do emerge. There's an ample sampling of New York New Wave, as Luna tackles Blondie, Talking Heads ("Thank You for Sending Me an Angel"), and Suicide ("Dream Baby Dream"). And Wareham can't resist a couple opportunities to show off his French on Michel Polnareff's "La Poupee Qui Fait Non" and the two versions of Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde", in which Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier plays Brigitte Bardot to Wareham's Serge. There are also a few omissions, most notably Luna's versions of Kraftwerk's "Neon Lights" and G ‘n' f'n R's "Sweet Child O' Mine" But, in the end, it's a strong collection of covers that showcases Wareham's excellent taste and reminds how underrated Luna truly were.