The Cruel Summer EP

Having been asked in 2012 by the entertainment website The A.V. Club to perform a classic summer song for its Undercover Summer Break series, Scott Lucas chose Bananarama's "Cruel Summer" and made over the '80s pop song as a sultry rocker dominated by a mesmerizing violin and a vocal that oozes streetwise danger. The version here was rerecorded in the winter of 2013 for this EP. Oddly enough, the performance inspired the group to record a new song, "Never Better," that uses a similarly dark dynamic to get its points across. Kenny Rogers' 1979 story-song country hit "Coward of the County" is given a smart arrangement, building from a quiet guitar and vocal to full-band participation. Two remaining songs—"Heavy Lidded Love" and "There You Are"—from the band's Blood Half Moon album are remade with acoustic guitar and violin, bringing out a sweetness not always evident when the whole band is going for broke.