With two steadfastly elegant albums already under her belt, Joan Wasser is set to bring some of that class to covers of the likes of Britney Spears, Adam & The Ants, Public Enemy, T-Pain and David Bowie (and those are just the ones we know about) for a new album named COVER that she is selling on her current European tour that started last night in Sicily. Billed ‘Interpretation Domination’, the shows will consist of “intimate duo performances” from Joan Wasser and sideman Timo Ellis, and will hit the UK at the end of September. If Joan’s previously released covers of Bowie’s ‘Sweet Thing’ and The Beatles’ ‘I Will’ are anything to go by, COVER will be an essential purchase. 　　Cover is Joan Wasser’s Pin-Ups, a compilation of cover versions that reveals much about her approach to music. 　　It’s a weird mix of old pop and psychedelia, hip-hop and garage indie, capped by a tremendous reading of the Nina Simone cornerstone “Keeper of the Flame”, where her quiet dignity and spare guitar-and-strings arrangement gives the song the stature of a requiem for the High Priestess of Soul. Britney Spears’ “Overprotected” becomes a sort of indie fem-rock anthem, while the priapic energy of Hendrix’s “Fire” is transformed into a slow, bluesy imprecation. The simple drums/handclaps/a capella vocal arrangement accorded Sonic Youth’s “Sacred Trickster” turns it into a “Clapping Song”-style girl-group number, while Adam Ant’s “Lady” and Bowie & Iggy’s “Baby” are given primitive avant-garde makeovers. The most intriguing material is sourced from hip-hop: both TI’s “Whatever You Like” and T-Pain’s erotic circus act “Ringleader Man” are treated with requisite panache, while Public Enemy’s “She Watch Channel Zero” possesses the most complex arrangement here. Engrossing, and never token in attitude.