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Aug 26, 2016 Katy Goodman & Greta Morgan By Matthew Berlyant

Not content to release merely one remarkable album in 2016 (her band La Sera‘s Music for Listening to Music To), Katy Goodman teams up with Greta Morgan (Springtime Carnivore) to release her second great album this year.

Though they had previously collaborated on a one-off single called “Space Time” under the name Books of Love back in 2013, this time the pair decide to cover 10 well-known punk and New Wave classics by Wipers, Bad Brains, The Replacements, The Gun Club, Buzzcocks, The Misfits, The Stooges, The Jam, Blondie, and Billy Idol.

Covers albums are notoriously hit or miss affairs, but Goodman and Morgan avoid mimicry by taking the speedy drive and nervous energy of these classics and dialing them down several notches, revealing a sadness and resignation in many of these compositions that perhaps even the original writers hadn’t considered. The result is not unlike some of Mark Kozelek’s records under his own name and his nom de plume Sun Kil Moon in which songs by AC/DC, Descendents, and others are transformed into sad, sentimental acoustic ditties that could melt the coldest of hearts.

This isn’t quite as spare, though. Any La Sera fan or, for that matter, anyone who’s heard Vivian Girls’ later re-workings of their earliest material from a 2010 Daytrotter session should recognize these keyboard-laden, jangly indie-pop covers as Goodman’s handiwork.

It’s also pertinent to note that Goodman and Morgan trade vocals here with each one singing lead vocals on half the tracks, but with their own ghostly harmonies permeating each song as well to fill things out. Not only do they show absolutely impeccable taste with the material they cover here, but the execution is flawless. Simply put, this is one of 2016’s finest efforts. (www.polyvinylrecords.com/artist/katy__greta)

Author rating: 8.5/10