Wayne Hussey and Julianne Regan of All About Eve make a reasonably interesting contrast – the guitar slinger versus the torch singer, the rocker versus the earth mother, all that obvious stuff. The pair have teamed up here to record 15 cover versions, ranging from the slightly predictable (Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue’s Where The Wild Roses Grow; “reworkings” of two Mission and AAE songs) to the more unexpected (Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman; Gerry & The Pacemakers’ You’ll Never Walk Alone).
Most of the songs tone down the originals rather than amp them up, giving Curios a funereal feel (see the restrained covers of David Bowie’s Ashes To Ashes and Duran Duran’s Ordinary World). After a while, though, you can’t help but wonder what the point of the exercise was, especially as the two new songs – Dangerous Eyes and A Change In The Weather – are forgettable.
Despite its interesting points, Curios has the inevitable feel of two old chums dossing about in the studio, and the album loses points for the pompous press release, which declares that “Curios is a collection of interpretations: to call them covers only tells a fraction of the tale”. Not to be taken too seriously, we reckon.
