The project was started in early 2008 by Manimal Vinyl's founder Paul Beahan. The album was originally planned to feature contributions from
Radiohead,
Nine Inch Nails and
MGMT, who all pulled out due to recording and scheduling conflicts.
The cover artwork was created by Los Angeles–based artist owleyes and the inside artwork was created by artist and musician Nico Turner.[1] The cover includes three images of the inside artwork from the gatefold edition of the album Aladdin Sane filled with
psychedelic graphics. The label released
A Place to Bury Strangers' cover of "
Suffragette City" on the music blog Cover Me one week before the album.[2] Xu Xu Fang's "China Girl" video reached number 1 on Cover Me Songs 2010 Year-end Best of list.
The Warpaint cover of Ashes to Ashes was well-received, appearing on NPR's "5 best cover songs of 2010" and RadioX's "The 10 best David Bowie cover versions".[3][4]
NME described the album as "a mismatch of a record, skipping frantically between genres with every turn",[5] while The Complete David Bowie called it "exhaustive and occasionally exhausting".[6]