Skittering between languid and frenetically ska/polka, the track's reminiscent of Brave Combo's great No, No, No, Cha Cha Cha, only, again, no one in that great band of Texan eclectics could've managed the crystalline high notes Julie reaches.
Later, the pair remake "Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds" as a jaunty rockabilly raveup (props to drummer Rich Zukor on this 'un): certainly beats the muddle Elton John once made of this hazed-out musical classic.
Other album highlights include Josh's jazzabilly "Lover Man," with its aptly trembly guitarwork and cool double bass courtesy of Jeremy Allen; "Hark," the closest to a new wave rock song this twosome has recorded; and the witty jazz club closer "Last Day."
Instrumentally, most of this studio-created disc belongs to Josh – who's particularly adept at fingery electric fretwork (note his surfy guitar hook on "Turn Me On") – though I'd be bereft if I didn't also make mention of Mike Cohen's slick fluting on "Let It Flow" and Michael Bellar's well-worked accordion on "L'Amour."
In concert, the Maxes are typically a four-or-more-piece unit, though, on this disc at least, the work is closer to one of those multi-tracked elpees that Dave Edmunds used to produce in the pre-Rockpile days, only more intimate. For that, I credit Miz Julie's alluring bono vox; her presence in the Maxes, I suspect, helps to ground songwriter Josh. "When the world breaks balls . . ." our hero acknowledges at one point, he's fortunate to have her. Listening to the Maxes swap their high-spirited Manhattan-flavored vocals, you can't help thinking that he's probably right.
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