“Life Beyond Mars: Bowie Covered” is the newest addition to the family of Bowie cover albums. In the spirit of themed David Bowie cover albums like “Goth Oddity“, this one is comprised of electronica covers. Truth be told, I’m not much of an electronica fan in general (though I do like the occasional electronic band) but there are a few fun covers on this album. The covers of “Loving The Alien“, “Sound + Vision“, “A New Career In A New Town“, and “Life On Mars” are quite ravetastic. I’m tempted to tie a pair of glowsticks onto the end of a couple of strings and dance around the house. On the other end of the spectrum, the covers of “Oh You Pretty Things” and “Sweet Thing” will make a great soundtrack for my next nap. And the cover of “Repetition” is disturbing – something about an upbeat song about domestic abuse seems so wrong.
Of course none of the covers can hold a candle to the originals, but it’s still a fun album for the hard-core Bowie fan…you know, not every cover can be as inspired as Bauhaus’ “Ziggy Stardust” or Xiu Xiu’s “Under Pressure”. If nothing else, the title of the album alone should be enough to get Bowie fans to buy it and add it to the collection – unlike “2.Contaminated Hopes of Every Outside Fan Everywhere“, ahem, I mean “2.Contamination“.