Adam Stafford and the Death Bridge Convention – Music In The Mirabel

Covers albums can be risky: on the plus side, the artist gets to release versions of songs his listeners may already love; on the negative, well-known songs are quick to bore. While Y'All Is Fantasy Island take an extended break, YIFI frontman Adam Stafford presents a 25-minute covers album that avoids the pitfalls of overfamiliarity with inventive interpretations of an intriguing bunch of songs. Opener Blue Clouds is the highlight, retaining only the vocal of Daniel Johnston's original, otherwise built upon layers of looping vocals – hums, swooshes and rambles – towards a rousing climax. The Twilight Sad's Walking For Two Hours is stripped of its ferocious guitars and righteous vocals in favour of a disquietingly placid take, and Devo's Big Mess is completely reimagined, the peppy synth-driven original rendered as a slow, creepy tale of mental instability. A lesson in musical recomposition. [John Wylie]