I don't know how the fuck I missed buying this when it came out. But it's been out for a fucking month now.
What we have here is the final recorded word from Ministry, which is a bunch of covers. 3 of which appeared on previous albums (why they didn't put the Magazine cover of The Light Pours Out of Me on here is beyond me). Since you can read a bunch of song by song reviews by the sorts of journalists who do that all day long, I'll save the small talk.
Grandpa Al's take on Under My Thumb is just the fucking business. This is the perfect blend of old school Ministry with the metal tinged sounds of late. This song is worth the price of admission alone. And from what Youtube is telling me, they are indeed playing this out on tour. Next Thursday is gonna be a good 'ol time it seems.
Suprisingly, the Black Betty cover is nice. I say suprisingly because the Ram Jam version of that song would be the national anthem if the girls of Coyote Ugly ever took over congress (note-their taste in music is white-trash-tastic). Rest assured that'll be my "token drive really fast" song in short order.
There's at least one throwaway on here. Al 'n Co attempt a slow semi-serious version of What A Wonderful World (yes the Louis Armstrong song) and it just doesn't work. It basically sounds like Oscar the Grouch singing over an old Juno with a stock piano line. Yawn. The other one on here is this a solo a capella (yes as in one dude singing with no instruments) song called Willie Stigmata. It's only a minute and its the last song on the album, so maybe it's supposed to be one of those 'hey look at this stupid litttle dity' things that has nothing to do with the album. Suffice to say, you really only need to hear it once. I guess Al wanted to make sure the last recorded thing on a Ministry album had to have the lyrics "George W. Bush has pasty white thighs". I mean, why the fuck wouldn't he?
That said, this is about as close to all-killa-no-filla as I've heard this year. Very fucking cool album. It's available on itunes, but for some unknown reason, they don't list it with the rest of Ministry's album. The artist is actually credited as "Ministry and Co-Conspirators". So either search for that or Cover Up and you should be good. Also on Amazon...and if you still are into going to record stores, it's probably at Best Buy or something else that'll make 1998 the best year ever!
As for the old covers, I already had 'em on the various albums they came on, and all those albums are fully loaded in both my ipods and computer...so now, I guess I have two of each on each. Thanks Al.
In other news...my roadbike's transition from 'triathlon/cross-country' ride to 'full-on-road-warrior-assault-machine is complete. Took it to swimming tonight and it is in fact the business...this is gonna be a good summer