Fatima Mansions

One of the band's best all-time moments, Nite Flights is a cover of longtime Coughlan musical role model Scott Walker, whose deep croon and sharp, vicious lyrics clearly influenced the Irish musician's work in both Microdisney and the Mansions. Coughlan's in great voice, while the song's epic trance becomes a bold rock crunch without losing any of its subtlety. A heavily remixed and revamped version of the cover appears at the end of this EP as "It's So Cold,

I Think," an interesting effort that sounds like Primal Scream's more threatening edge. One other inspired cover also appears on the disc -- a tight, quick kick through the self-consciously corrupt "Diamonds, Fur Coats, Champagne," from the underrated second album by Suicide. A Coughlan original fills out the disc -- "As I Washed the Blood Off," a typically fraught picture of a domestic situation somewhere in the garbage, with Coughlan's fine vocal crossing over between alternately calm and heavy-crunching music. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide