Review: Grant Lee Phillips "Nineteeneighties"

Review: Grant Lee Phillips "Nineteeneighties"

Grant Lee Phillips "Nineteeneighties": Aidin Vaziri | Grant-Lee Phillips, the roaming local troubadour on "Gilmore Girls," had a better 1980s than most, somehow evading the horrors of Pat Benatar and Starship. Here, the former Grant-Lee Buffalo singer pays tribute to the post-punk classics that not only carried him through the Pac-Man decade but informed his own music. He delivers lilting, dramatic readings of the Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation," R.E.M.'s "So. Central Rain" and the Smiths' "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me." Each one gets a distinctive makeover thanks to the singer's mesmerizing falsetto and propensity for soft-focus Americana ballads. But it's the most unexpected covers that work the best -- surprisingly beautiful takes on Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" and the Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way."