Suffering Jukebox: A Brief Review Of The New Covers Album From Pete Astor (The Weather Prophets)

By Stan Cierlitsky

I'm so excited to be reviewing the new Pete Astor album You Made Me, out now via Faux Lux and Gare Du Nord. My love for Pete Astor started in 1988 when I bought my fourth CD ever, the Creation Records sampler Creation: Flowers in the Sky 1984 - 1987. The two songs by Pete's old band The Loft blew me away and from that point on, I have devoured everything he did. From The Loft to The Weather Prophets to Ellis Island Sound, The Wisdom of Harry, and on to all of the solo iterations, I've followed his career intently.

This newest release is actually an album of almost all covers. It was recorded by Ian Button (Thrashing Doves, Death in Vegas, Dot Allison) and features Dave Tattersall (Wave Pictures) on guitar, Andy Lewis (Spearmint) on bass, and from Black Tambourine, Pam Berry (I was at an indie-pop show at Pam's house back in the day), and many others. The album opens with a track that almost everyone knows, "Dancing with Myself", originally done by Generation X, and later made even more popular as a solo Billy Idol hit in the early days of MTV. From the very start of this one you realize that Pete has made it his own. Sounding just like you would imagine Pete would sound when doing this familiar New Wave classic. It's followed by an Elvis Presley song "Black Star". In the notes that accompanied this album it says that the title track of David Bowie's swan-song album is widely thought to have been inspired by this number. Wow. Makes sense when you hear Pete's version. The next selection is apparently the only original on the album, "Chained to an Idiot". It fits so well with the vibe of the other offerings here on You Made Me.

I really found the selection of covers here quite interesting and honestly perfect: "There is Manhattan" by Cat Power, "Vincent Black Lightning" by Richard Thompson, and "Can't Hardly Wait" by The Replacements, among others. And for all of them, if you didn't know the originals, you would think they were Pete Astor creations. The talented group of musicians he put together for this seem to work so well together. However, my favorite song on this album is one which makes me sad as I am still not over the loss of David Berman. Pete includes a spectacular tribute/cover of "Suffering Jukebox" by Silver Jews here on You Made Me and it is the clear highlight of this record for me.

In the press release that came with the album Pete says: "Like everybody, my life has been sound-tracked by the songs I listen to and sing along with. And a bit like a collection of photographs, I've lost some while some never even got taken. Nonetheless, some really good ones did get through. Here they are." That's a perfect way to sum up this collection of songs.

I doubt it's gonna happen but oh how I would love to finally see Pete Astor live here in the United States. I would even take a road trip to make that happen, especially if there was a chance he'd perform any of the covers from this fine new record.

You Made Me is out now via the link below. More details via the Gare Du Nord Facebook page.

More details on Pete Astor via the official website.

[Photo: Pam Berry / Pete Astor Facebook]