Mourning Woody

There’s just something so awesomely asinine about a hicked-out country cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus,” which is the leadoff track on this EP of eclectic, acoustic remakes. Mourning Woody turns the dark techno-pop hit into a jangly, upbeat hoedown of a song, and in the process accomplishes something almost impossible: They make a cover sound like their own, original song. But things go downhill from there, as the band follows with a blasé cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” which Nirvana already covered — quite incomparably — on MTV Unplugged. That’s followed by toe-the-line renderings of Vince Gill’s “Whenever You Come Around” and The Beatles’ “She’s a Woman.” The last song is a cover of 3 Doors Down’s “Kryptonite,” which sounds like, well, a bland lounge cover with drum cymbals tuned way too high. Overall, Mourning Woody is a decent, middle-of-the-road cover band that would be inconspicuous playing behind your pitchers of beer in a smoky bar, but the EP is worth hearing just for the kick-ass, quirky cover of “Personal Jesus.”