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May 10, 2024 Web Exclusive By Frank Valish

It’s rare that covers albums live up to their billing. Typically, they are boilerplate at best and simply staid and boring at worst. Love, LA is not your typical covers album.

Curated and produced by Paige Stark of Los Angeles band Tashaki Miyaki and Rick Ross of Delicious Vinyl, and with proceeds benefiting the Fernando Pullum Community Arts Center in Los Angeles, which provides performing arts instruction to youth in South Central L.A., Love, LA exemplifies the best of both worlds—a stellar set of music for a stellar cause.

The cover songs here are each presented as duets, and each of them stun. Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift start things off with an utterly sublime version of Hitchcock’s own “Arms of Love.” Marc Maron (yes, that Marc Maron) and Stark herself contribute a haunting cover of Love’s “Signed D.C.,” which features some searing electric guitar. Gold Star and Johanna Samuels bring an Americana-styled version of The Velvet Underground’s “I Found a Reason.” Poppy Jean Crawford and Tashaki Miyaki play a slinky “You Showed Me,” originally by The Turtles. And even Red Hot Chili Peppers get a stylish makeover, when Cherry Glazerr and Jeffertitti soak “Dosed” in fuzz and highlight the song’s wispy melody beneath.

It bears repeating: most covers albums are throwaways, with perhaps one or two redeeming tracks that you’ll seldom go back to anyway. Love, LA is the rare covers album that stands out from start to finish and distinguishes itself with its unique and stellar versions of a diverse set of tunes. It’ll have you coming back time and again. (www.orgmusic.com)

Author rating: 8/10