The Lounge Kittens “Sequins and C Bombs”

We’re not huge fans of You Tube, but every now and then it can help you discover something new and a bit out of the ordinary. That’s how we first found The Lounge Kittens. There was a brilliant video where they do a mash up of some classic pop punk songs. It’s always a close call with doing covers but that video suggested that The Lounge Kittens would be a lot of fun.

The album is certainly off to a winning start with a cover of Alice Cooper’s brilliant “Poison”. A great song which was already one to sing along to and there is no way you will be able to resist joining in on this version. In many ways, that’s the real secret to this album. It’s great to hear a song like “Yeah” or, in particular, “Jump Around” where you can actually make out all the words! You just can’t resist these cute versions and they’re guaranteed to put a smile on your face.

It’s also great that they put a twist on the songs to give them a totally different vibe. A good example is turning “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” into a sultry doo wop song. Indeed, when you hear the opening doo doo dahs on their version of “Africa”, it makes you realise what a great tune the original really is.

The album hits a bit of a peak with the awesome Prodigy ‘mega mix’ of “Smack My Firestarter to Outta Space” which is just brilliant. It’s not the only hard hitter on here, the album also features a version of Metallica’s “Sad But True”. We can’t be alone in just taking total joy from this fun version being the polar opposite to the po-faced delivery of James Hatfield and Co. It’s a similar story with “Beautiful People” which is even miles away from the Marilyn Manson version.

Taking on a bona fide classic like Bowie’s “Changes”, is a brave move. But really, it just confirms what a fine pop tune the original is. They even manage to take a song that we don’t really like (“The Cave”) and make it appealing!

We can well imagine that many music ‘critics’ could take a snobby approach to this album. But there are some great songs on here and we really love some of the versions. Are they ‘guilty pleasures’? Maybe, for some, but we just think they’re pleasures…why be guilty about it! Then again, we’re proud to say we really enjoyed both “Pitch Perfect” films, so we don’t do guilt!