I had my fantasy baseball draft on Friday, so I spent last week pondering the Pirates’ middle infield situation instead of carefully crafting a Cover Freak post. So this week you get a random collection of songs. Whaddya want for nothin’?

The Watson Twins “Just Like Heaven” (The Cure)
The Watson Twins really are twins who traffic in folks, roots and Americana music. This is a nice dreamy downtempo take on the Cure.

My Brightest Diamond “Tainted Love” (Gloria Jones)
No, “Tainted Love” is not a Soft Cell song. Gloria Jones originally recorded the song in 1964 to widespread critical and commercial indifference. The song was resurrected as a club hit in Britain in 1973 and Ms. Jones recorded another version of it in 1976 which also sank without a trace. The boys in Soft Cell knew the song as a British club song and recorded a synthesizer-heavy arrangement that became a huge hit in 1981. Now just about everybody who covers this song covers the Soft Cell version. This version is has a faster tempo than you usually hear, closer to the tempo of the original song.

Ghoti Hook “Earth Angel” (The Penguins)
There’s just something about a revved-up doo-wop song that makes me glad to be alive.

Reel Big Fish “Kiss Me Deadly” (Lita Ford)
Whenever I post a song that I think is by Reel Big Fish somebody writes in to tell me that it’s actually by some other band. But I’m pretty sure that this really is RBF. It’s a good ska treatment of the minor hair-metal hit from the 80s. When I was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando they had a picture of Lita Ford on the wall by the pay phones. She was trying hard to look like a tough rock chick but you could see her kid tugging at her leg just at the edge of the frame. It was a actually a very touching photo, just not for any intended reason.

Björk “Top Of The World” (The Carpenters)
I’ve never understood the appeal of Björk. She’s always struck me as a slightly less annoying version of Yoko Ono. But I’ve gotta say that I like this oddly-syncopated Carpenters cover.