William Shatner

The phaser that Comic Book Guy owns in The Simpsons was fired, he quipped, "only once, to stop William Shatner from making another album." It's apt, because although Shatner is often wry and self-aware enough to make some of his songs utterly captivating and, yes, musically satisfying, he only works in small doses. Seeking Major Tom, a double-album that cobbles together covers of every song that was ever even distantly related to David Bowie's fictional hero, is not a small dose. Surely with all his self-awareness the man who made his musical name adding spoken-word seriousness and dry, yet emotive, emphasis to "Rocket Man" in 1978 and "Common People" in 2004 should know that his shtick, while interesting, cannot support an entire full-length, let alone this behemoth. So, yes, Shatner's covers of Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" and Bowie's "Space Oddity" are worth hearing, but making it to his take on "Bohemian Rhapsody" without skipping tracks? It's... just-not... going-to-happen!