Track Listing

1. Astronaut
2. Waiting on a Friend
3. Teenage Lightning
4. Drunken Whistler
5. The Alibi
6. New Haven Comet
7. Neon Lights
8. Lovedust (Video)
9. 1995 (Video)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #122660 in Music
• Released on: 2002-10-08
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
Hot on the heels of Romantica and their sold-out national tour, Luna has let loose with a special mini-album. Featuring 7 tracks plus 2 exclusive videos, 'Lovedust' and '1995'. Digipak. Jetset Records. 2002.

Customer Reviews

Luna's Best...
The EP "Close Cover Before Striking" is Luna's best recorded work in quite a number of years. The band's last few studio releases have seemed at times to suffer from apparent fatigue, but this time out they've come up with a batch of winners augmented by a killer cover of The Rolling Stones's "Waiting on a Friend." And if Dean Wareham will never be mistaken for Mick Jagger as a singer, well, with Luna the vocals hardly the point. The warm, lush Velvet Underground-like arrangement makes the song sound like a Luna original.

Perhaps inspired by this performance, Wareham and company sound fully engaged for the rest of the album. It's hard to pick favorites because the best Luna material is all about establishing an album's length mood, but other standout cuts include "Teenage Lightning," the instrumental "Drunken Whistler" (and some of the band's best ever guitar work) and "Neon Lights." Unlike other recent Luna works, however, it is a pleasure to report that there's not a clunker in the mix. In this the EP's breveity could also be considered its strongest virtue.

Overall, an excellent surprise EP release from a durable alternative rock band.

open this cover!
After releasing a descent record in April of 2002, Luna return with the near flawless "Close Cover Before Striking". The L.P. is the perfect soundtrack for a lonley rainy night, when images of old loves and regrets flow in and out of the mind. "Teenage Lightning" stands out as the L.P.'s best track. The covers are both as flawless as the originals were. However, with Luna, the songs are just an excuse to show off the guitars. They flow in and out of each other like trained acrobats on a high wire act. Dean's lyrics are often funny, and touching, yet very very effective. He finds the quirky language that runs through our minds. Finally a L.P. that is worhty enough to stand next to their albulm "Penthouse"

luna lunacy legacy
after watching the 'tell me do you miss me' dvd of luna's brilliant farewell closing, i was yearning for yet another fix. i found it with 'close cover before striking'. dreamy version of 'waiting on a friend' by the rolling stones, then songs 4 through 7 sends the listener into a dream-like catatonic state of audible bliss. this brief cd showcases in 7 songs the luna legacy that will be deeply missed.