The Moog Cookbook: Plays The Classic Rock Hits

The Moog Cookbook's gimmick has always been pretty easy to explain: The band's self-titled 1996 debut was just two guys in space suits playing your favorite modern-rock hits using a battery of vintage Moog synthesizers. Following the release of similarly inclined novelty packages like Grunge Lite—your favorite modern-rock hits again, but in Muzak form—the record seemed like something of a retread. Its follow-up doesn't expand much on that approach, performing robot reinventions of 10 classic-rock staples, including "Whole Lotta Love," "Sweet Home Alabama," "Born To Be Wild" and more. But Plays The Classic Rock Hits is decidedly superior. For starters, the arrangements are far more complicated and inventive than you'd expect, with lots of unpredictably ridiculous interludes, and the song selection is more appropriate: Don't you want to hear Boston's "Oh What A Feeling" turned into the propulsive disco hit it's always deserved to be Even limited to 10 songs, Plays The Classic Rock Hits gets a bit old in this large a dose, and the tracks run longer than they need to. But there's a lot of guilty-pleasure fun to be had here.