Peter Murphy has always worn his influences on his sleeve. Bauhaus had a number of covers to their name and their take on “Ziggy Stardust” not only defined the band, in a way, it took Bowie’s own trademark song away from him and made it a Bauhaus standard. That’s not to mention the band’s Eno, T-Rex, and Norman Greenbaum covers. So, while covers albums are often throwaway releases, stop gap releases, or contractually obligated releases, for Murphy, it’s kind of a self-defining moment.

And his picks here make a lot of sense. On one hand, it may have been interesting to hear Murphy cover something totally left field. But instead, we get the exact recipe of what makes up Peter Murphy. There’s an Iggy Pop cover (“funtime”), another Bowie covert (“Space Oddity”) and even a slightly surprising Prince cover (“Purple Rain”). As is expected, Murphy takes the tunes and murphy-izes them, adding a sort of cold and dark sheen. While the tracks are taken from a span of almost 40 years, the original vampire sounds awesome on all of the tracks, be they stripped down acoustic numbers or revved up rockers.

Of particular note is the Joy Division cover- “Transmission.” Bauhaus and Joy Division have often butted heads as to whom is the top-dawg of o.g. post-punk (though in true English fashion, the conflict is understated for the record). So, it is exciting to hear Murphy pay tribute to an equal and a contemporary, all the while making it his own. The dude is talented that way. On a similar bend, it’s telling to hear Murphy cover NIN’s “Hurt,” the student meeting the master and the eternal rotation making its galactic journey.

Still, while this could have been a covers album for the ages, it’s got one big problem. Despite the whopping $40 price tag, it was made on the cheap. The sound recordings here range from pristine live pro-audio, to bootleg recordings taken from a radio show. Bizarrely, one track has the radio station ID left on. You could say that was a fun artistic tag-on, except the audio quality is atrocious, the station Id is clipped, and it’s jammed midway through the record. Wouldn’t it have made sense to close out a side with that bit of history? It feels like this release was put together in literally less than an hour.

It's as shame because a few days audio work on this could have made it a defining Murphy release and a covers LP for the ages. Instead, by cutting corners, the producers of this have cut out the heart of what made the Bauhaus take on “Ziggy stardust” so transcendent.