Continuing the Friday Flashback theme re: R.E.M.’s Automatic For The People, I’d planned to feature something from Dashboard Confessional’s 2002 MTV2 Album Covers tribute to the album. But listening again, DC’s (mercifully) abbreviated set is a disappointment. I don’t know that a single attempt renders Automatic eternally untouchable, but its songs certainly presented quite a challenge for frontman Chris Carrabba.

So while the Automatic match-up may have been less than perfect, Dashboard Confessional did issue a covers album that’s worth a second spin. The Wire Tapes, Volume 1, sold exclusively during Carrabba’s 2007 solo acoustic tour, features songs originally written and recorded by Counting Crows, Weezer, and Regina Spektor, among others.

Curiously, one of those others is Men At Work. Even curiouser to me is that “Overkill,” the MAW original in question, was in my head last Monday morning well before this post came to mind. On Wire Tapes, Carrabba gives the Aussie group’s 1983 #3 hit an understated makeover. It works! Hear here:

The Wire Tapes, Volume 1 isn’t available via iTunes or Amazon, but scrounging up a secondhand copy is just a Google search away.