![l.a. guns break my stride l.a. guns break my stride](http://direct.rhapsody.com/imageserver/images/Alb.31651359/600x600.jpg)
I also initially thought Annie Lennox was in trouble in 1995, releasing a cover album as her second solo release, but Medusa ‘s mix of well-known songs (“Train in Vain,” “Take Me to the River,” “Whiter Shade of Pale”) and relative obscurities (“No More I Love You’s,” Paul Simon’s “Something So Right,” and her exquisite take on the Blue Nile’s “The Downtown Lights”) made for an interesting and entertaining listen. I recall groaning at the news that Springsteen was recording a record of songs made famous by Pete Seeger, but The Seeger Sessions turned out to be a joyful exercise in music-making, one that translated just as well on the live stage as it did on record. Granted, they’re not all like that, and sometimes my reticence to embrace such projects is unwarranted. Bereft of original ideas, the artist reaches out to existing material, to perhaps find a spark that will re-ignite whatever flame that has gone out, or at least give him/her product to toss out into the marketplace, to distract listeners until the flame spontaneously flickers on again.
![l.a. guns break my stride l.a. guns break my stride](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-5qenq49HZo/maxresdefault.jpg)
Usually, there is some sort of creative atrophy that settles into the organs and muscles that makes it plausible for, say, Peter Gabriel (who released a stinker of a cover record this very year) to set aside his songwriting to ostensibly pay homage to others. With relatively few exceptions, when an artist who typically traffics in original material spends 45 to (God help us) 80 minutes playing other artists’ songs, there is something afoot, something not very pleasant. Now, Michael has no way of knowing my disdain for most cover records. This one comes courtesy of my Popdose bruthah from anuthah mutha Michael Parr, and lo and behold, it is an album of cover tunes by L.A.