SThe list of musicians that William Shatner has pulled together to create Seeking Major Tom is really astonishing – everyone from American country pop stars Brad Paisley and Sheryl Crow to rock and roll royalty like Richie Blackmore (Rainbow and Deep Purple) and Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne and Black Label Society). The songs he has chosen to cover include everything from Black Sabbath’s "Iron Man" to Duran Duran’s "Planet Earth": there’s truly something for everyone. However upon your first encounter with this album you can’t help wondering what the hell you just listened to. It left insanity behind a long time ago.

Shatner’s distinctive voice, which any Star Trek fan will recognise in an instant, is a bit of an oddity. He doesn’t so much sing the lyrics as speak them to you and looking over the track listing it’s hard to see how it’ll work. Yet, somehow, it does. Whether it’s the somehow even madder than the original "Bohemian Rhapsody" or his crack at "Rocket Man" it at the very least will gain a reaction from you. More often than not this reaction is hilarity – and what’s wrong with that? Presumably Shatner is well aware of how ridiculous this whole thing is - or at least I hope he is - and it gives the album a charm that a lot of music misses these days. This is a group of guys getting together and having a blast while putting a new shine on a collection of fantastic songs. I defy any of you to put on his "Iron Man" cover and not crack a smile when he launches into his best Ozzy impression. Plus, with Zakk Wylde on guitar you can’t really go wrong.

This album isn’t going to win any awards and probably won’t even have you listening to it the whole way through on a regular basis. Yet if you do decide to give it a chance you’ll soon find yourself singing along with Shatner and, in all probability, laughing along with him too.