SUPER 8 has it covered

 By Henry Lipput

Since his second album, Turn Around Or …, in 2018 (one of three released that year as part of a musical hat trick), SUPER 8 has included songs written by others on nearly every album and even a few singles. He has now collected these covers and added more to create the groovy personal jukebox that is Raindrops On Roses (available as a free download on Bandcamp).

These songs run the gamut from music released decades ago to those recently reimagined. There are hits from the ‘60s like Lulu’s “It’s My Party,” Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman,” and Neil Diamond’s “Cherry Cherry” (which was paired on SUPER 8’s HiLo album with his brilliant “Angels & Neil Diamond”) and deep cuts like The Kinks’ “Autumn Almanac” (one of my favorite Kinks songs).

There are songs that the man known as Trip (real name Paul Ryan) no doubt grew up listening to: The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” The Smith’s “Back to the Old House” (a lovely acoustic guitar and mandolin arrangement), Psychic TV’s “Goldstar,” and “Ride A White Swan” by T. Rex. More recent picks are BMX Bandit’s “Serious Drugs” (the one on Turn Around Or … that started it all) and The Replacements’ “I Will Dare.”

Then there are some amazing things SUPER 8 has done to reimagine and/or finish up two songs.  “Susan Revolving” is based on a fragment by XTC’s Andy Partridge and has a cool Dukes of Stratosphere vibe. The other is “Now & Then (reimagined)” from a demo recorded by John Lennon in the 1970s; it’s a haunting listen not only because of the arrangement but also knowing Lennon wasn’t around to give it a proper recording.

Speaking of arrangements, some songs like “I Will Dare” start off as if SUPER 8 is doing a faithful recreation of the tune but then he makes a left turn and gives us a clever and surprising twist. And that happens a lot on Raindrops On Roses which is one of the album’s delights.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining but one of my favorite SUPER 8 covers didn’t make the cut: it’s “X Hits the Spot” by Michael Head & The Strands which appeared on 2019’s Backers & Maracas album and is worth checking out. Also worth checking out is the rest of SUPER 8 releases on Bandcamp and while you’re there you could, since Raindrops On Roses is a free download, buy yourself an album, a single, or a download to support this extremely talented musician and songwriter.