Cowboy Junkies

★★★★ Songs Of The Recollection PROPER. CD/DL/LP

Toronto band follows 2018’s acclaimed All That Reckoning with covers album.

On paper it might sound like a filler – nine songs, none of them original, some newly recorded, some not – but to listen to it’s wonderful. Which should be no surprise given the number of other people’s songs the Junkies have tackled over the decades, on-stage and on record. This one starts with a pretty faithful Bowie cover – Five Years: a nod to

Pin-Ups perhaps, or the climate crisis? – followed by an eerie Ooh Las Vegas (Gram Parsons) and a dreamy Americana No Expectations (Rolling Stones). There’s a couple of Neil Young songs, one dramatic, one sweet, a soundscapey Cure track and a dark country take on Gordon Lightfoot’s The Way I Feel. But best of all: Dylan’s recent I’ve Made Up My Mind To Give Myself To You, sounding like a slow, beautiful hymn; and Vic Chesnutt’s Marathon, its soft, slow sadness, melted vocals and spooky guitar both powerful and heartbreaking.