Luna: Best of Luna

Ah, Luna — one of just a few bands that Tim and I both like. I know Tim has this collection too, and like me he got it most for the second 'Lunafied' CD which brings all their cover versions together. The 'best of' CD was a bit superfluous since I've already got all but five of the tracks in some format. (No real complaints about Dean Wareham's choice of the best, though Going Home would have been on my list.)

I'd actually pay money — not a lot, but a bit — to get a list of Dean's record collection. That's why the cover versions are interesting: because they're an eccentric and oblique bunch that come from unswept and unlikely corners of popular culture, from Wire to Guns'n'Roses to Michel Polnareff. And Kraftwerk, of course.

Some of my illusions were shattered, however, when I read in the sleevenotes that Dean got help from Laetitia Sadier on his French pronunciation for Gainsbourg's Bonnie and Clyde. I'd just assumed that he was the kind of sophisticate who'd been speaking French fluent since he was a teenager.

Thanks, as usual, to Andy, who tipped everyone off that this double CD was available at a steal for £6.99 almost immediately after its release. Here are the details of the album on his site.

One question: in Lovedust (one of the songs I didn't already have), Dean sings "the lost glove is happy". I remember writing down this phrase decades ago, but I can't remember where it originated. Google now shows just the Luna song, so that's not much help. I've got a feeling it was from one of the surrealists, like André Breton. Google also hints at Nabokov's Pale Fire, but I read that less than a decade ago, so I think Nabokov may also have been quoting?

MusicBrainz entry for this album