UMUR "Everybody Loves Sausages" is the 20th full-length studio album by US sludge/stoner rock/metal act Melvins. The album was released through Ipecac Recordings in April 2013. The band´s last album "Freak Puke (2012)" didn´t feature the Big Business part of the lineup (drummer/vocalist Coady Willis and bassist/vocalist Jared Warren). Instead the album was recorded as a three-piece consisting of Buzz Osborne (guitars, vocals), Dave Crover (drums) and Trevor Dunn (bass). The Big Business part of the lineup are back on "Everybody Loves Sausages", but that doesn´t make the album a "regular" Melvins album by any means (whatever that means). Instead of recording a new album featuring original material the band have opted to record a cover album with the help of several guest musicians like Scott Kelly (Neurosis, Tribes of Neurot, Shrinebuilder) and Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys, Lard) among others.

"Everybody Loves Sausages" features 13 cover tracks by as different artists as Venom, The Kinks, David Bowie, Roxy Music and The Jam. It´s no surprise that the band are well playing and that the performances of the tracks work well within the chosen arrangements. Melvins have recorded quite a few cover tracks in the past with success and they are pretty good at putting their own touch on other people´s music. I did find that a couple of the vocal performances on the album tried a bit too hard to sound like the originals, but it´s not a major deal. Besides the the cover of "Warhead" by Venom, which of course sits firmly placed in heavy metal/thrash metal, most of the tracks on the album is either punk, rock´n´roll or glam/art rock. The covers of "Station to Station" by David Bowie and "In Every Dream Home A Heartache" by Roxy Music (featuring Jello Biafra and Kevin Rutmanis) are some of the highlights here, but "Best Friend" by Queen and the punked "Timothy Leary Lives" by Pop-O-Pies are great too, but that goes for most of the material on the album.

The whole thing is packed in a suitably powerful and organic sound production and as such "Everybody Loves Sausages" has everything going for it. I still can´t help feel slightly indifferent towards it though. Maybe it´s because I don´t know enough of the originals or maybe it´s just that cover albums in general have a hard time getting me excited. Despite my somewhat lurkwarm feelings towards "Everybody Loves Sausages", it is objectively seen a quality release by Melvins and it is both entertaining, well played and well produced too, so a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.