Nadja - Only Shallow

i didn't quite see this one coming - a covers album by the fuzzed-out Nadja! it kicks off, or rather meanders off, with perhaps a little too faithful rendition of only shallow (which of course means that it is still pretty damn good). it is not a stretch to see how Nadja's drone get's applied to gem's like Codeine's 'pea' but the real treats here are the covers of a-ha's 'the sun always shines on tv' (the album title cleverly combines the opening lines of 'pea' and the title and a-ha's 'classic') and elliott smith's 'needle in the hay'. and it goes far beyond being simply the 'oh look what they have done' sort of thrill. nadja actually adds something to a-ha's original and manages to preserve the spirit of elliott smith's song although it sounds vastly different. overall an unlikely success.