''Volt'' is the final work released by

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Trip Shakespeare Trip Shakespeare was an American Rock music, rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota and active from the mid 1980s to early 1990s. The band included Dan Wilson (musician), Dan Wilson and John Munson, who would later go on to be f ...

. A six-song EP of covers, it was released in 1992 by Minneapolis label Clean Records. ''Volt'' includes songs by

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in Pub rock (United Kingdom), pub rock, power pop and New wave music, new wave,Thunderclap Newman Thunderclap Newman were a British rock band that Pete Townshend of the Who and Kit Lambert formed in 1969 in a bid to showcase the talents of John "Speedy" Keen, Jimmy McCulloch, and Andy "Thunderclap" Newman. Their single, " Something in t ...

Big Star Big Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in 1971 by Alex Chilton (vocals, guitar), Chris Bell (vocals, guitar), Jody Stephens (drums), and Andy Hummel (bass). They have been described as the "quintessential American ...

, the

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Hüsker Dü Hüsker Dü () was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continuous members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardc ...

, and

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, forming the folk rock group Buffalo Springfield. Since the begi ...

History

The recording of the songs on ''Volt'', which were intended to be Trip Shakespeare's fifth album, followed two albums for major label

A&M Records A&M Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and functions as a branch of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Interscope-Geffen-A&M. Established in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss, the label initially operated independent ...

, ''

Across the Universe "Across the Universe" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song first appeared on the 1969 various artists' charity compilation album ''No One's Gonna Change Our W ...

'' and ''

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''. Both were critically well-reviewed but suffered from low sales. Inspired by the then-current

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, the band chose songs about peace, revolution and freedom as a unifying concept for the album. A&M initially encouraged the project, but became unsure how to market it. A&M's promotions department, upon hearing the album, responded by saying "What do we do with this?", according to bassist

John Munson John Munson (born December 13, 1966) is an American musician who is best known as the bass player for Semisonic. He was also a member of Trip Shakespeare during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Trip Shakespeare Matt Wilson, lead vocalist of ...

. The label eventually rejected ''Volt'' and dropped Trip Shakespeare from its roster. The band broke up soon afterwards. Trip Shakespeare bought back the ''Volt'' songs from the label and released it on Clean, the Minneapolis independent label which had put out its first records.

Reception

The album had a mixed reception from critics. Gregory McIntosh of ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'' wrote that none of the songs were "particularly gripping, but there are some great moments as well as fun listens for fans of Trip Shakespeare." Chris Morris of ''

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'' praised the "stunning, harmony-laden" and "sharp selection of covers." Courtney King of Tennessee newspaper

The Jackson Sun ''The Jackson Sun'' is a daily newspaper published in Jackson, Tennessee, and is one of western Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeast ...

called ''Volt'' "enjoyable," singling out the "upbeat and peppy" version of "Peace Love, and Understanding," calling it "a really good song to slam to if you do it at a moderate pace," but felt that the band did better with its original compositions. Dave Strahan of the

Daily Iowan ''The Daily Iowan'' is an independent, 6,500-circulation student newspaper serving Iowa City and the University of Iowa community. During the 2020–2021 academic year ''The Daily Iowan'' transitioned from printing daily to producing a print ed ...

newspaper called it "a disappointment", saying it reduced Trip Shakespeare to "a cheesy cover band." He praised the song "Helpless" as "the gem buried in this uninspired work,

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maintains the beauty of the song while making it their own."

Track listing

References

{{Trip Shakespeare 1992 EPs Trip Shakespeare albums Twin/Tone Records EPs 1990s covers albums