ANGEL CORPUS-CHRISTI I Love NY

(Criminal Damage import)

Truth-in-packaging award: this album’s eight cuts are all covers of the songs of some of our favorite Noo Yawkers: Lou Reed, Richard Hell, Suicide, the Ramones, Patti Smith, the Velvets, and even a medley of Robert DeNiro’s Taxi Driver soliloquy with “New York, New York.” The cover agent is Ms. Angel CorpusChristi, author of both incredibly sweet & dry vocals, and the neo-Nico wheeze keyboards. Each of which adds whole new levels of archness and irony to songs that were already absolutely modern their first (abrasive) time around. Cult satraps like Suicide’s own Alan Vega and MX-80 Sound guitarist Bruce Anderson share in this sonic penetration of the Manhattan Isle. But Angel’s a smash Lulu Christi all on her own. R.R.

DEFENESTRATION Defenestration (Slow Iguana)