Andrew W.K. Goes Gundam With English Covers Album

Short of learning to sing in Japanese, most English-speaking anime and J-Pop fans must content themselves with shoving translated approximations from fan dubs into their favorite theme song melodies.

Thanks to rocker Andrew W.K., however, fans of the "Mobile Suit Gundam" trilogy now have 16 translated tracks care of Universal Music Japan to shout along to whenever the musical mood strikes them.

The album, "Gundam Rock," is a sort of followup to W.K.'s 2008 release of Japanese pop rock covers, which did so well that he was asked by Gundam's Sunrise Inc. to cover its most popular tunes.

One of the discs' most impressive features is its authentic Gundam artwork by Akira Yasuda, featuring W.K. flying next to what looks to be Amuro Ray's RX-78-2. The fact that image portrays the musician able to breathe in space is pretty much just verification to his fans that, yes, he is a Batman of rock and roll music.

To stream tracks from the album, fans can scope W.K.'s Web site.