Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs are linked by their shared great taste in the jingle-jangle morningest, California dreamingest pop from the late 1960s. OK, so Girlfriend-oh Matthew Sweet recently had a band with Shawn "Rockabye" Mullins. And yeah, Hoffs' Bangles recorded with post-makeup Kiss shredder Vinnie Vincent. Plus, like, Sweet and Hoffs first recorded together in the Austin Powers backing band Ming Tea-- hey, "BBC1! BBC2! BBC3!"-- remember? But, uh, like I was saying, they've got discernment, see.
Point is, Sweet/Hoffs' Under the Covers Vol. 1 collects tasteful renderings of 14 consistently awesome songs from the duo's fave era, and also the Bee Gees' 1971 "Run to Me". Some of the best are kinda-but-not-too obvious, like the Beatles' Jagger burn "And Your Bird Can Sing", or "Cinnamon Girl" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" from Neil Young. This compared to a technically impressive "Alone Again Or" for Love and a disappointingly un-manic "Monday Monday". Tambourine jingle and mellow guitar jangle abound, yay. Still, a few complaints: Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" doesn't go over as a duet done the Byrds' way, despite Van Dyke Parks on organ, and "Run to Me" ain't "To Love Somebody". With so little added to the originals, you have to ask: Why do this?
'Cause it's good fun, and on sober rainy days you can't buy that, not unless you go to lobbyist parties with Porter Goss. Anyway, Parks isn't the only music-geek celeb guest: Television's Richard Lloyd tears into a "Cinnamon" solo and bendy-wends Scottish quintet the Marmalade's Hendrix-approved 1967 Dutch Top 30 single "I See the Rain", while the Velvet Crush's Rick Menck percusses throughout, and former Voidoid Ivan Julian gives feedback to the Velvet Underground's extremely standable debut-opener "Sunday Morning". Other good choices: The Zombies' "Care of Cell 44", from once-overlooked masterpiece Odessey and Oracle, the ever-essential Left Banke's "She May Call You Up Tonight", and the Beach Boys tropical-themed prom doo-wop "The Warmth of the Sun". And good golly, the harmonies. Plus, "The Kids Are Alright", all right?
Suckers for ballads: Hoffs' "Different Drum" (penned by the Monkees' Mike Nesmith) marches pretty close to Linda Rondstadt's sublime 1967 big break with the Stone Poneys, while Fairport Convention's Judy Collins-covered "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" gets country-sad with rippled opening chords somewhere between the Allman Brothers' "Melissa" and Thunderclap Newman's "Something in the Air" intros. Both do-overs are solid, but in the end, Hoffs has done similar material better, particularly on 1983 Paisley Underground super-collab Rainy Day. Meanwhile, Sweet has played with Lloyd Cole, done swell covers like the Kinks' "Big Sky", and recorded the aforementioned 1991 pop-classicist classic Girlfriend. So it's tough to compare here, and hey, didn't I say they have great taste? But I still don't get why they liner-note as "Sid n Susie".
