Keep it Under the Covers

Noooo, No, my faithful readers, this won't be a rant on the damaging nature of premarital sex (although a rant is a brewin', along with my mocha java, on that topic), or even the pain inflicted by cute couples and P.D.A., but the almost as damaging affect of shelling out $15 for Under the Covers, Vol. 1 by Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (aka, the woman who will one day come to her senses, and proclaim her undying love for yours truly.......and in my chivalry, I will selflessly send her back to her hubby)).

I will admit I had my doubts going in, but the fact that the ever fetching Ms. Hoffs (or Mrs. Jay "Austin Powers" Roach) has teamed up with a guy who resembles the WWMM (when not attending my OA meetings), had me interested.....plus I Love's me some cover songs.

A re-worked, re-vamped Cover song is a wonderful thing, with Jimi Hendrix's version of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" being the definitive example. Other stand outs (in my ever humble opinion) are 7 Seconds "99 Red Balloons", Splitsville's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again", and Casandra Wilson's beautiful version of U2's "Love is Blindness". All differing from the originals just enough to make them fresh, and even exciting and powerful. The Anti War lyrics of "99 Red Balloons" takes on an immediacy when perfectly punked up by Kevin Seconds and gang. So basically Mike's rule for covers (which should be an industry standard soon) is make it new, make it fresh, and make it your own.

Sadly Sweet/Hoffs fail on all three counts, as well as not adhering to a lesser rule of only covering songs that ain't already been covered. The production was obviously meant to sound very "60's", but so did the originals, so there goes the NEW and FRESH parts of the ruling. Making the songs their own is only slightly touched on, as both singers have unique voices, and Mr. Sweet does pull at some interesting guitar tones here and there......but in the end it still just sounds like an almost comical SNL Wedding band or Lounge act (I kept expecting to hear "please tip your servers" or "we'll be hear all week" in between the songs). This is not to say all the songs are not done technically well, with my hope they might even inspire listeners to seek out the originals (please seek out the originals!), but both of these artists have done some great covering in the past (namely Mrs. Roach's pop perfection version of "If She Knew What She Wants", while still in the Bangles).

For a list of artists that have covered these songs previously (and better), check out The Covers Project, or take a gander at my partial list below.

The Beatles "and Your Bird Can Sing" covered by The Jam
Love's "Alone Again or" covered by UFO (no really, it's a great version, and my intro to LOVE)
Stone Pony's "Different Drum" covered by Evan Dando and The Lemonheads
The Zombies' "Care Of Cell #44" covered by the Sneetches
The Left Banke's "She May Call You Up Tonight" by the Posies' (and R.E.M.'S) KenStringfellow
The BeeGees " Run To Me" by the late great Jim Ellison (Why Jim, why?)and Material Issue

If ya can't find these, shoot me an e-mail and I'll make ya a mix

Studio 150, Paul Weller's similar, but superior, all covers CD is worth a listen ,although I recommend the import with bonus tracks.

Time to get out of these Covers, and off to embrace the day, and watch the Ravens destroy the Colts (wow, I sounded like a guy for a second, I'll try to keep that in check).

God bless, Keep praying for each other,
mike