Danny Michel Loving The Alien (Danny Michel Sings The Songs Of David Bowie). Release Date : September 21, 2004. Label: Maple Music Recordings. Rating: Andy doesn't dig rating stuff. I was eagerly waiting for this one to plop into my mailbox. I tossed it on for my morning commute, and as I walked down the street in a colourful fall sunrise, I could not wipe the delirious smile off my face. What we’ve got here (so it would seem at the outset) is Danny Michel doing David Bowie covers. But it’s still very much a Danny Michel record. Much like former Grape Of Wrath, Kevin Kane’s spot-on Stairway To Kevin album, where he did “Ashes To Ashes” amongst other non-Bowie tunes, if you’re not paying close enough attention, you might not even pick up that some of this music isn’t actually Michel’s own. He starts out with his signature plodding, cabin-country plinkiddy guitars and speak-singing, oozing character. He gives “Young Americans” the sort of treatment it’s never had before. Here’s the surprising part though – as the album went along, my delirious smile turned to a face fulla shock. It started slowly… you know, just some electronics leaking into the music below the vocals, a few more twisty things that we aren’t used to hearing from Michel. But suddenly... suddenly “Andy Warhol” comes around. It had been building all this time, but I still was not in any way prepared to hear Michel yodel like that. I didn’t know he could do that. Suddenly there’s that crazy vocal action, there’s effects poured thickly over everything, there’s a hundred thousand people harmonizing behind him. Or a hundred thousand him’s harmonizing behind himself. What’s happening? Our dear, sweet, neighbourly Danny Michel is getting all racy on us! Yeeehaaa! Is that… is that… sex appeal??! Oh Bowie makes delicious monsters of us all. Now and then, like in “Big Brother,” we hear some of Michel’s signature guitars come back in, but mostly from here on out it’s just a strong, loud, appropriate homage to the unparalleled David Bowie. Michel sings throughout all over the place. He maintains his characteristic vocal titches, but we rarely hear him sing so fluidly. There’s moments that sound perfectly lifted from Bowie lore. Michel goes off on this disc. I like that he chose some of the more unconventional tracks from Bowie. From a guy who owns somewhere in the neighbourhood of 200 Bowie records (as he told us here), I’d expect no less. It’s strange to hear him sing with a certain vacancy on his version of “Ashes To Ashes,” definitely coming across as downright creepy. And his treatment of “Lady Stardust” is interesting – but I’ll leave that one for you to find out about yourself. No matter what, it’s fun and danceable like the real thing – both of them. (Does Bowie know about this record? Someone should tell him... really.) Lyric of choice : Well that’s not fair – these aren’t Michel’s lyrics. And if you want me to pick through Bowie’s lyrics and choose something, we could be here for a while. Song of choice : “Andy Warhol” – I looooove hearing Michel go batshit on this one. -Andy Scheffler Elsewhere Danny Michel website Published : September 22, 2004.