On Trial - Head (2022)

When the normally slow-working On Trial (known for taking three or four years between albums) followed up their stellar 2002 effort, Blinded by the Sun, with Head the very next year, their fans thought it all seemed too good to be true. And they were right, at least in the respect that Head contained no new original material, but rather extended an earlier five-song EP of the same name to 12 tracks -- all of them covers of the Danish rockers' favorite late-'60s acid, psych, and space rock bands, plus some obscure Nuggets alumni. A perfect example of the latter, the 13th Floor Elevators' lysergic benchmark "Reverberation (Doubt)," inaugurates the proceedings and is soon followed by another cut from the Texas band's 1966 debut, the more garage-wild "You're Gonna Miss Me," before completing a Roky Erickson trifecta with the wistful CD-closing "I Have Always Been Here Before." In between, On Trial excavate the Third Bardo's super obscure "Five Years Ahead of My Time" and the Rolling Stones' oft-forgotten Satanic Majesties tune "Citadel"; conjure a surprising rave-up on Love's "A House Is Not a Motel" and revisit the Arthur Lee songbook with the mournful heroin lament "Signed D.C."; visit Detroit via an explosive medley of the Stooges' "T.V. Eye" and the MC5's cataclysmic take on Sun Ra's "Spaceship"; re-launch Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive" for an edited outer-space mission; and give Mose Allison's oft covered "Parchment Farm" yet another, rather uncalled for, Blue Cheer-derived romp-through. Finally, and perhaps most unlikely, comes a cover of Virginia-based doom legends Pentagram's "Be Forewarned," erroneously credited to Chicago thrashers Macabre, curiously enough. All told, these renditions make Head a very entertaining covers album, but a covers album nonetheless; ideal for On Trial fanatics and perhaps retro-rock neophytes looking for some kind of jukebox of days past, but not the casual listener. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia