Under the Covers Vol. 1

Under the Covers Vol. 1
Label: Shout Factory
Rated: NONE
WorkNameSort: Under the Covers Vol. 1

It’s no surprise that given the chance, Matthew Sweet and the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs would opt to record a collection of ’60s pop nuggets. There’s no arguing over the selections – except maybe “Monday Monday,” which lite-FM has brought to overexposed ruin – and there’s no denying the affection and attention to detail that these hard-core music fans bring to this home studio labor. For hoopla’s sake, Van Dyke Parks was brought in on keyboards and wrote string arrangements, but the focus of these recordings is the strong harmonies and Sweet’s obsession with tightly compressed rhythm tracks. It’s impossible to improve on tracks such as The Beatles’ “And Your Bird Can Sing,” the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning,” The Who’s “The Kids Are Alright” or Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” but this duo does nothing to disgrace themselves. Much like Rainy Day, a 1983 collection that featured Hoffs and members of the So-Cal Paisley Underground covering their fave ’60s tracks, Under the Covers should stand as an interesting curio.

This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2006.