Ah, the covers album. For some artists, it’s a chance to show off their cooler-than-cool influences (see: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ Kicking Against the Pricks), radically rework unlikely sources (see: Johnny Cash’s American Recordings series, Sun Kill Moon’s Tiny Cities and anything by Nouvelle Vague) or humanize a musician previously perceived as alien (see: David Bowie’s Pin Ups). For others, it’s a sluggish phone-in to fulfil the final release in a contractual obligation, or a simple cash-grab from past-prime has-beens (see: Def Leppard’s Yeah!).

February sees the release of all-cover albums from both The HotRats (two members of Supergrass plus super-producer Nigel Godrich) and Peter Gabriel. Strictly focusing on song selections, Gabriel comes across as a tad more hip — tackling the Magnetic Fields, Bon Iver, Radiohead and Arcade Fire alongside old standbys Bowie, Paul Simon, Talking Heads, Neil Young and Lou Reed.

The HotRats, meanwhile, dig not-too-deep into the ’70s glam-psych-punk songbook with popular favourites from Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The Kinks, Roxy Music, The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, The Cure and The Doors. Bowie and Reed get The HotRats treatment as well, and the group tosses in a few curveballs with the Beastie Boys, Squeeze and a nervy acoustic Violent Femmes-style update on Gang of Four’s post-punk classic “Damaged Goods.”

On a listening level, here’s the big difference: Gabriel’s po-faced, glacially paced funeral-ballad deliveries are a serious snore, while The HotRats sound like a pub-rock band having the time of its life and giving the same back to the crowd. Only on Arcade Fire’s “My Body is a Cage” (a B-minus song at best to begin with) does Gabriel inject a bit of life into the proceedings, but someone as classy as he is should have avoided this hogwash altogether. Six studio albums into their careers, Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey of Supergrass have nothing to lose or gain from a project like this, other than having a laugh.