With the release of The Velveteen Age, Diane Birch had to realize her new EP of so-called “goth classics” was steeped in risk from moment she had the thought.

Coming in from a polar-opposite genre, Birch would quite likely rouse the suspicions, if not outright ire of the clad-in-black subculture. Charges of musical sacrilege would be leveled simply by her daring to cover these precious songs by Sisters Of Mercy, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, The Cure, This Mortal Coil, and Peter Murphy. But even if she successfully ignored that vocal minority, would the tunes she too loved as a rebellious, misunderstood teen still work when arranged in her very ’70s singer-songwriter way?

As it turns out, Diane Birch’s bid with The Velveteen Age is a mostly successful one, no doubt a result of her close kinship with the source material.

“During my teenage years as a Goth these songs were amongst my nearest and dearest,” says Birch, the daughter of a preacher who did not approve of secular music. “Sitting in my bedroom with my headphones pressed into my ears till they hurt, each song gave me a weird kind of hope for my future. I would have never imagined I would get a chance to record them one day, let alone with some of my closest friends.”

That’s a picture of the singer at age 16 on the cover of The Velveteen Age, wearing a vintage Victorian wedding dress.

The friends Birch refers to are the members of The Phenomenal Handclap Band, who assisted her with the arrangements and instrumentation. Though The Velveteen Age unfortunately starts off weakly, with covers of Sisters Of Mercy’s “This Corrosion” and Siouxsie’s “Kiss Them For Me” that don’t quite gel for me (“Kiss Them For Me” was already pretty pop in its original form), the remaining five are fantastic. Take Birch’s interpretation of Echo & the Bunnymen’s “Bring On The Dancing Horses,” for instance.

Sure, the original can never be topped (thank you, Pretty In Pink), but Birch and her Phenomenal cohorts add a real grooviness to the Echo & the Bunnymen’s song that brings out the melody like never before. So while “Bring On The Dancing Horses” might once have been overcast just enough to be considered “goth,” Birch’s new take makes you wanna move, sing along, and smile, without feeling the slightest bit foolish:

Before wrapping up, I have to mention another highlight of The Velveteen Age. Birch has infused Joy Division’s “Atmosphere” with a gospel feel that seems to have been hiding in plain sight all this time. Of course, I keep thinking she’s going to seque into Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” or break out into U2’s “Bad,” two other surprisingly soul-steeped originals I love a whole lot.

Oh, and if you’re not terribly familiar with Diane Birch’s own songs, get schooled here.

Purchase Diane Birch with The Phenomenal Handclap Band – The Velveteen Age via iTunes.