Ex-Bangle Susanna Hoffs and alterna-pop hero Matthew Sweet have teamed up to do an album together. It's not exactly Elvis joining The Beatles, but it's interesting enough. Sweet has done some interesting alternative pop music and already collaborated with a couple of indie guys in the side project The Thorns. So where did Hoffs and Sweet decide to take this? They made a record they called Under the Covers Vol. 1, covers of songs from the '60s. What to make of an album like this?
There are a couple of ways you can look at this. They re-named themselves Sid & Susie (you can probably guess who is who) and they put track-by-track liner notes in the CD. On the one hand, the nicknames are endearing and the liner notes reflect the love these two have for the material they have chosen. The artwork has a very retro-'60s vibe. They want this to be fun. On the other, this fussiness can give the impression of two artists trying to justify making the record. Are they taking themselves too seriously?
The first question I asked when I began looking at the song selection: is this really necessary? A lot of us have the originals of these songs in our CD collection. Do we need these versions of these songs? These are songs we know by heart. We have sung them in the shower or in the car. Maybe we even make the mistake of thinking we sound good when we do these songs. Talk about the power of great material — it can withstand the atrocities of being sampled in hip-hop songs and bad karaoke versions done in cars and showers and bars worldwide. Granted, Hoffs and Sweet are a good three leagues ahead of the poor, delusional soul butchering The Mamas and The Papas on Saturday night down at Ed's Tavern on the corner of 4th and Lincoln. Still, the originals provided a pretty good backing track to the songs we love to sing.
Article comments
1 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
Two favorite songs are on here side by side. Love's "Alone Again Or"--and The Beach Boys' "Warmth of the Sun" is absolutely beautiful (written after JFK's assasination). Good to see a couple obscurities from Left Banke and Zombies.
2 - Vern Halen
Susie still makes great 60's flavored music when she wants to ("ie "Get the Girl"' from one of those Austin Powers soundtracks), so I'm OK with her doing a 60's cover album. And she's still cute, which is more than you can say for most bonaifde 60's artists, the ones that are still around anyways.
3 - DJRadiohead
"Alone Again Or" was more enjoyable to me than "Warmth of the Sun" on this package.
4 - DJRadiohead
I have never been a big fan of Susanna Hoffs' voice. It grew on me a little here. It's a perfectly adequate record... just not a great one.
5 - Vern Halen
In this day & age, sometimes a perfectly adequate record is as good as it gets, you know.
6 - DJRadiohead
Vern, you are right. I like the album. I don't love it. I like it. The same can be said for a lot of records in my collection.