Travels With Brindle Covers Sparks

Photo by Krzystina Calderone for Vintage Girl Studios

Travels With Brindle, the lo-fi ukulele-pop project from Massachusetts' Chelsea Spear, is no stranger to covers. Back in 2018, Spear covered Alex Lahey's debut album. Now she's back with a reimagining of Sparks' 1979 disco album No. 1 in Heaven. The first single from that project, "Tryouts for the Human Race," is about as different from the original as you can get. Sparks' version is a weirdo, space age sounding disco track, and Travels With Brindle's version is... well... lo-fi ukulele-pop. It's just Spear and her ukulele, and is about as stripped down as you can possibly get. As someone who really needs to spend some more time with Sparks' catalog, this is still a great listen. Spears is a compelling performer no matter what she's doing, and her version of "Tryouts for the Human Race" is more than the curiosity that a ukulele cover of a Sparks disco song could have been.

Chelsea Spear says of the music of Sparks:

“One of the things that hit me about Sparks is how effective they are at pastiche and at making genres their own. It feels like they learn the rules of a genre just so they can subvert them. The fact that Sparks inspire such strong feelings among their fanbase also lends itself well to cover songs – you can hear the joy in the recording.”

You can listen to Travels With Brindle's version of "Tryouts for the Human Race" below. For more on Travels With Brindle, check out the artist's website. If you're in the Boston area, you can see Spear at Gilman Park in Somerville tonight (September 6), and at the JP Music Fest tomorrow (Saturday).