Helloween - Metal Jukebox (1999)

Cover albums... I tend to have two problems with them. One, I really prefer to hear an artist's original work than them doing a whole collection of someone else's. Two, no matter how much music I've listened to, over many different genres (and I really have heard a lot), it always seems like the majority of songs selected I've never heard, or heard of.
In regards to Helloween's Metal Jukebox, I'm familiar with four.  Two of them are the most bizarre choices on here, ABBA's "Lay All Your Love On Me" and The Beatles' "All My Loving", while the others are David Bowie's "Space Oddity" and Cream's "White Room", although I admit I've come quickly familiar with Hocus Pocus' novelty hit "Focus".
One thing that bothers me is that I did not recognise Jethro Tull's "Locomotive Breath", since I have most of their stuff and, while AQUALUNG isn't my favourite of theirs (that goes to THICK AS A BRICK), I thought I should have picked it.  Mind you, Andi Deris does a pretty good Ian Anderson impression. And then there's the Scorpions' "He's A Woman, She's A Man", which opens this set, although there's some of that band's catalogue I'm yet to listen to.
Anyway, forgetting all that for a moment, I have to say that this is an entertaining record, with Helloween tackling everything with gusto and passion, while showing they're not afraid to try something different. Well, they'd already shown that years previously anyway, but since they bombed, it's great to see they haven't been scared off experimenting too much.
I still don't really go for cover albums - I don't suspect I ever will. But Metal Jukebox is certainly fun and, in the end, no matter who wrote what songs when, it's all about what you're actually listening to at the moment.

***1/2