Listen to me: Chan, the critic, gives his slant on this week's new releases

Rage Against the Machine: Renegades (Epic)

Frontman Zack de la Rocha opted to not continue his rage with the band in October, abruptly announcing his departure and taking time off to concentrate on his own material. But prior to his split, the band worked with Rick Rubin to produce 11 cover songs for a studio album. Prior to that, Rage had intended to release a live album with two studio cover songs as bonus tracks. Upon further planning, it decided to put the live album on hold and release 11-track Renegades.

Such confusion is atypical of Rage, a band that has been one-dimensional in both its message and delivery, leaving one to wonder if Zack's departure was a collective and intentional move by the band. With three successful albums, perhaps this was the perfect way to take a break without putting pressure on the band to produce another million-seller.

It would be shame if such thinking were true, since Renegade is a monsterous attempt, perhaps the highlight of the band's short existence. The deconstruction and delivery of the songs makes them completely unrecognizable. The album is called a collection of covers simply because the songs were not written by Rage, but think of Celine Dion, Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, who all sing other people's songs and one might reconsider the "covers" tag for "Renegade."

Guitarist Tom Morello has said in interviews that the band wanted to tackle the most legendary hip-hop and rock songs of the past two decades. The daunting task of remaking the Rolling Stones' "Street Fight Man" and Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" is handled with the typical Rage tongue-licking-steel delivery. Morello's guitar work has never sounded fresher than on the hip-hop classics "Microphone Fiend" (Erik B. and Rakim) and the first single "Renegades of Funk" (Afrika Bambaataa). The latter takes a futuristic sonic attack that is often missing from the organic sounds the band has used to separate itself from rap-metal bands such as Limp Bizkit and Korn. Other revolutionary choices include Devo's "Beautiful World," EPMD's "I'm Housin" and the Bruce Springsteen's formerly acoustic-epic "The Ghost of Tom Joad," a newly remixed version of the song that the band released with their home video in 1997. Hearing the Springsteen track makes me wish for an entire Rage cover album of his materials.

Two bonus tracks that were recorded in Los Angeles, "Kick Out the Jams" and "How I Could Just Kill a Man," will be included on the first shipment to stores. The latter features Cypress Hill's Sen Dog and B-Real.

Somewhere in time distortions and discomfort will bloom again once Rage returns with original material. Until then, it sleeps now in the fire.