Saturday, May 13, 2006

I'm Blank

I thought I would add a post to give more to read to start with. So, I'll talk about a CD I bought by Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs called Under The Covers Vol.1. The CD is made up of cover songs from the 60's. I've followed Matthew Sweet off and on since his Girlfriend album in 1991. Susanna Hoffs was in the 80's band The Bangles. They were known to play together on the Austin Powers movie soundtracks and now have made this CD.

The CD is pretty good, I would rank it a 7 out of 10. There are many highpoints on the album, such as the ragged classic rock jamminess on Neil Young's songs "Cinnamon Girl" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere". Susanna Hoffs gets into "Eternal Flame" like balladness on the Bee Gee's "Run To You" and Fairport Convention's "Where Does The Time Go?". They also do effective renditions of well known overplayed songs like The Beatles "And Your Bird Can Sing" and Stone Poney's "Different Drum."

Sometimes the albums crisp, clean production makes the music sound softer than it needs to be. The background vocals sound like The Carpenters in some places and the album lacks a centerpiece song to tie everything together into a cohesive whole. In the end, it's like listening to a reunited folk duo run through their favorite songs for fun. A fun, entertaining CD from beginning to end.

1 comment:

Jeannie said...

My husband and I were out visiting a local town, when he picked up this CD. We listened to it on the way home, after spending a very nice day together. Although I feel pretty much the same way about this CD as you, it will always have a special meaning to me. It reminds me of my sweet husband, and how much I love that he is in my life.