Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts was due to be the opening act for Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe stadium tour last month before it was postponed to 2021, however, despite this, Tuk is thrilled to announce the release of the new EP ‘Covers From The Quarantine’ out via Better Noise Music on 12th June. The release will be available on streaming platforms and can be accessed here.
So what do INXS, Kiss, David Bowie, The Who and …. Lana Del Rey have in common? My honest answer is that all of them appear on this EP because for the life of me I can’t find anything remotely interesting or constructive to say about Lana Del Rey and her rather pretentious and boring brand of pop.
In essence Tuk’s EP is nice and basic – recorded acoustically in his attic home studio in order to keep sane during the covid-19 lock down its more of a chance to keep connected with fans than anything else. There’s not an electric guitar in sight and with just the addition of keys and voice and some (sadly noticeably) sampled drums it’s a very homemade production.
Having said that the combination of less obvious covers and ‘in the same room’ feel give it a simple directness. INXS ‘Don’t Change’ which opens is in my opinion one of the great INXS songs and it’s well covered here if not entirely capturing the full sweep of the original. David Bowie’s ‘Life On Mars’ you can’t really go wrong with – a great song as they say is a great song with just guitar and voice.
It’s also nice to hear a cover of a lesser known Kiss song in ‘Hard Luck Woman’ a song I always had a bit of early Rod Stewart about it, and as it’s pretty nicely done here.
As far as Lana Del Ray goes Tuk himself says in the press release: “I still struggle whether or not I should have done it …” and to be honest he’s spot on – he really shouldn’t have bothered. I forced myself to listen to it once and it is utter shite. I honestly couldn’t count on the world’s biggest computer how many better songs have been written than ‘Summertime Sadness’ It really is not a good song or even a mediocre one. Even ending with The Who’s ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ doesn’t quite take that bad taste out of your mouth. It’s a bit like that moment in Spinal Tap where they say “They were still booing the opening act when we came on.”
But four classics and a stinker isn’t a bad return.
7/10
Track Listing: Don’t Change | Life On Mars | Hard Luck Woman | Summertime Sadness | Behind Blue Eyes
