It has been said that the key to a successful cover is making the song sound like your own. By that measure,
Everclear are very successful indeed, as every song on
The Vegas Years -- a covers collection consisting partially of new cuts and previously released material, much like
Poison's
Poison'd!, released in 2007 on Capitol, the very same label that put out
The Vegas Years -- bears the unmistakable heavy hand of
Art Alexakis, who leans on heavy muted eighth-note rhythms through many of these 14 songs. When he's not pumping out these staccato guitar riffs -- he can't even resist them on a cover of
Neil Young's "Pocahontas" -- he dresses "Rich Girl" up in "A.M. Radio" pop threads, turning it into something that could have fit into either half of
Songs from an American Movie. All this means that if you read a song title here and imagine how
Everclear would cover it, you'd be exactly right, as they make "This Land Is Your Land" into a sequel to "I Will Build You a New Life" and turn both
Thin Lizzy's "The Boys Are Back in Town" and
Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls" into boogies. Again, according to the yardstick of turning songs into their own, this succeeds mightily. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine