David Hasselhoff is releasing a very serious, but also not that serious, cover album.

Sounds about right.

The title track was originally done by Lord of the New Church in 1982, and it’s called Open Your Eyes.

It’s everything you’d expect from an 80s attempt at politics – warnings about corruption, media manipulation, and the inevitable fallout.

Still relevant, yes. Is it groundbreaking? Not particularly.

Over to Rolling Stone for some more context before we brave the video.

Performing in front of a wall of TVs showcasing white noise-laden images and flash the word “Lies,” Hasselhoff sings with an earthy tone over James Williamson of the Stooges’ menacing guitar.

“Violence rules within our nation’s midst/Well, ignorance is their power tool,” he sings. “You’ll only know what they want you to know/The television cannot lie.”

Take it in:

Uhm…okay.

I feel like he could have just cast his eyes to the heavens and yelled “damn Millennials!” and it would have done the job more convincingly.

The 13-track Open Your Eyes features an array of covers, including the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” and Echo & the Bunnymen’s “Lips Like Sugar.”

In addition to Williamson, Hasselhoff also pairs with Todd Rundgren, Ministry, Charlie Daniels and several other artists on the forthcoming set.

It’s all a little on the nose. I expected more from you, David.

Like this gem from 2015:

True survivor, indeed.

[source:rollingstone]