The Temperance Movement's Covers & Rarities: a worthwhile mopping-up exercise

Top-notch odds and sods from The Temperance Movement assembled on Covers & Rarities

The Temperance Movement - Covers And Rarities cover art
(Image: © Earache Records)

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While it remains to be seen what the future holds for The Temperance Movement, Covers & Rarities is one of those holding operations that should come as some relief to fans, pulling together a very credible collection of unnecessarily hard- to-find tracks. 

In the case of The Temperance Movement, the high quality leaves you wondering why several of these 11 tracks weren’t included on albums the first time round. Kicking off with a previously unreleased and absolutely stonking version of Deep Purple’s You Fool No One, with Purple’s Ian Paice knocking seven shades out of the drums (and cowbell), the covers feature first, with a particularly punchy take on Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy coming a close second for sheer power. 

Of The Temperance Movement’s own tunes, the dreamy Mother’s Eyes and Free-esque Turn should never have been mere debut-album-era bonus tracks. Likewise the sparky rocker Centrefold was criminally relegated to the status of a White Bear-era Deezer enticement, and the hooky, rootsy Do The Revelation was available only on Spotify. 

Bafflingly, Covers And Rarities commits the same kind of crime by offering the previously unreleased and very fine Long Run as a twelfth, digital-only track. Nevertheless, it’s a mopping-up exercise definitely worth checking out.

Essi Berelian

Whether it’s magazines, books or online, Essi has been writing about rock ’n’ metal for around thirty years. He has been reviews editor for Classic Rock and Metal Hammer, rock reviews editor for lads mag Front and worked for Kerrang!. He has also written the Rough Guide to Heavy Metal and contributed to the Rough Guide to Rock and Rough Guide Book of Playlists, and the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles (13th edition). Most fun interview? Tenacious D – Jack Black and Kyle Gass – for The Pick of Destiny movie book. An avid record/CD/tape collector, he’s amassed more music than he could ever possibly listen to, which annoys his wife no end.