Luna - The Best of Luna

  by Jon Rogers

published: 7 / 11 / 2006

---

Review

After the disintegration of Galaxie 500 Dean Wareham set off on his own path and founded New York’s Luna. Essentially Wareham took the blueprint laid down by the Velvet Underground’s eponymous third album and made a career out of expanding on it, taking a more relaxed, laid-back approach. He managed to make it last for seven albums. And while the critics took to the band, in particular the group’s third album 'Penthouse' in 1995, it never really broke out of being a much-admired cult attraction. This compilation manages to separate the wheat from the chaff and show that Luna were, largely, overlooked. Making explicit the great debt owed to the Velvets was the inclusion of guitarist Sterling Morrison on 'Friendly Advice' from the second album 'Bewitched” after the band had supported the Velvets on their reunion tour. Wareham’s guitar playing also drew from Television’s Tom Verlaine and Verlaine popped up to lend a hand on 'Penthouse'. For most of the time Luna played lullaby-soft, gentle songs. Even '23 Minutes in Brussels' – inspired by a famous bootleg of a riot at a Suicide gig – is largely happy to plod along while Verlaine overlays some gorgeous guitar solos. It only really gets animated towards the end, but it is well worth waiting for. While Luna managed to write some lovely songs that captivated like the early single 'Anesthesia' and 'Tiger Lily' they essentially made the same record seven times. They had found what worked for them and decided not to mess with the formula. In the years between 1992s 'Lunapark' and 2004s 'Rendezvous' nothing, fundamentally changed. If you’d heard one Luna album, you’d heard them all. Like Galaxie 500 Luna had a love of the cover version and weren’t afraid to try out the unusual expected. Included with the 'Best of' comes 'Lunafied', a separate disc of some of band’s covers. Included here are Kraftwerk’s 'Neon Lights', Wire’s 'Outdoor Miner' and Alice Cooper’s 'Only Women Bleed'. And even Guns ‘n’ Roses’ 'Sweet Child O’ Mine' gets the Luna treatment. Certainly not all of them really work, like Tom Rush’s 'No Regrets', but all are great fun and well worth a spin.

Track Listing:-

1 Moon Palace
2 Sideshow By The Seashore
3 Anesthesia
4 Friendly Advice
5 California (All The Way)
6 Slide
7 Tiger Lily
8 Chinatown
9 Lost In Space
10 23 Minutes In Brussels
11 Egg Nog
12 Bobby Peru
13 Ihop
14 Into The Fold
15 Superfreaky Memories
16 Dear Diary
17 Lovedust
18 Black Postcards
19 Bonnie And Clyde (Version "Clyde Barrow")
20 Indian Summer
21 Ride Into The Sun
22 In The Flesh
23 Season Of The Witch
24 Jealous Guy
25 Neon Lights
26 Sweet Child O' Mine
27 That's What You Always Say
28 Everybody's Talkin'
29 Outdoor Miner
30 No Regrets
31 La Poupée Qui Fait Non
32 Only Women Bleed
33 Dream Baby Dream
34 Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
35 Bonnie And Clyde (Version "Bonnie Parker")