Matthew Sweet has been fairly prolific over the past few years, participating in a supergroup of sorts with Pete Droge and Shawn Mullins called the Thorns, and also released a pair of well-received solo albums last year. Susanna Hoffs has also been busy in recent years, releasing a couple of solo albums, and also reuniting the Bangles for a reunion tour, which absolutely smoked in back to back nights at the House of Blues in Chicago on their initial run. She also has a new Bangles album — Doll Revolution. Together, Hoffs and Sweet have united to finish what they started with Ming Tea and the Austin Powers movies. An album was planned at the time, but plans were shelved, because Austin Powers brass thought that the album would conflict with sales of the Austin Powers soundtrack.
That's all water under the bridge with the release of Under The Covers Vol. 1, which is a 14 track celebration of the 60s, with one lone non-60s cut, "Run To Me", thrown in to round things out. If you've already read DJ Radiohead's review of this album, I have to admit that I was kind of on the same page with DJ initially. On my initial listen, the first half of the album was a bit touch and go, although I enjoyed the second half much better.
Subsequent listens to this album have really brought it home for me. I was born in 1974, so I grew up with some of this music, which my parents played for me. "The Warmth Of The Sun" was an important track for me to hear, with all of the Beach Boys albums that my dad shared with me in my early years. What makes this album enjoyable for me, is that it doesn't stick to well-known tracks like the Beach Boys cover. Instead, it is educational, and stretches out with tracks from The Marmalade, Fairport Convention, and even Love — bands that might not be at the top of every person's CD collection.
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