When the released their first album in 1986, , eight of the nine songs were covers, and their second, the 1988 breakthrough hit , introduced them to a larger audience with their interpretations of 's "Sweet Jane" and 's "Walkin' After Midnight." Recording other people's songs and giving them a sound of their own is deeply ingrained in the ' working method, so it's no great surprise that they've chosen to release an album devoted entirely to covers. 2022's features five new recordings of tunes from artists they admire, along with four previously released tracks that appeared on EPs ( 's "Marathon" and 's "Seventeen Seconds") or tribute albums ( ' "Ooh Las Vegas" and 's "The Way I Feel"). This is very much in the tradition of what we've come to expect from the in the year 2022, and that is not at all a bad thing. As a singer, has learned to adapt her understated murmur to a wide range of moods and melodic frameworks, and she's consistently lovely here, especially in her rueful takes on 's "Five Years" and 's "Love in Mind." Guitarist has a gift for weaving expressive dissonance and electric accents into the folky vibe common to their performances, and the overdriven finale of "Five Years," the sudden showers of fuzz in 's "Don't Let It Bring You Down," and the reverb-enhanced feedback on "Ooh Las Vegas" attest to his status as an unsung hero of noise guitar. And the rhythm section of bassist and drummer are reliable in their excellence, knowing when to rise and fall with the mood of the songs and giving and just the right sort of musical support. In many respects, the have changed very little over the course of 35-plus years, but presents that as a virtue. This band have maintained a creative vision that's served them beautifully, and their commitment to the power of dynamics and finding the details of a song by leaving room to ponder the details and textures has led them to write some great material and also find unexplored landscapes in the work of other tunesmiths. captures them doing the latter with grace and intelligence. ~ Mark Deming