On the heels of her 1977 U.K. hit -- a cover of Alice Cooper's Only Women Bleed -- Julie Covington went back into the studio with producers Joe Boyd and John Wood to record 11 more tracks for what would be her self-titled second album. Boyd helped put together a stellar cast to support Covington -- including Richard Thompson, Simon Nicol, Ian Matthews, and Trevor Lucas from the various incarnations of Fairport Convention, as well as Steve Winwood, John Cale, Andy Fairweather-Low, and a collection of top-shelf session players. When it came to material, he was also helpful in gathering a fine collection of songs for Covington to wrap her powerful, theater-honed voice around. Boyd brought Thompson's I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight and Sandy Denny's previously unreleased By the Time It Gets Dark to the project, while Covington added the Weill/Brecht composition Barbara's Song from her days in the theater, to a list that included tunes from Kate Bush, Steve Winwood, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle. There's a slight commercial sheen to the music that gives the Thompson and Denny tracks a certain accessibility (Bright Lights was the first single), while Barbara's Song fits naturally with Andy Fairweather-Low's dancehall shuffle Dancing in the Dark, or John Lennon's How. On the other hand, Tom T. Hall's rocking I Can't Dance is stiff and not really well-suited to Covington, while Anna McGarrigle's Dead Weight seems forced and a bit rushed, lacking the subtle venom and dark humor of the original. Reissued in 2000, Julie Covington...Plus, which is a nice mix of folk-rock and pop, adds the bombastic Only Women Bleed along with a respectable cover of Little Feat's Easy to Slip to the original 1978 release (Julie Covington). Both songs were previously only available as a single. ~ Brett Hartenbach, Rovi

1		(I Want to See The) Bright Lights
2		By the Time It Get's Dark
3		Sip the Wine
4		How
5		Barbara's Song
6		A Little Bit More
7		Let Me Make Something In Your Life
8		I Can't Dance
9		The Kick Inside
10		Dead Weight
11		Dancing In the Dark
12		Easy to Slip
13		Onlly Women Bleed