Record of the Month

I figured I'd do a monthly 'what I'm listening to' kind of thing. This could be viewed as a lame placeholder kind of post. And probably it is. But it's my blog! So there!

Blobby is a man who doesn't seem to learn his lesson. It's a problem. I recognize the problem before I make the mistake but I continually make it. I'm a doomed doomed man.

...as 'they' say - those who repeat history.....blah blah blah.....

I've said it before - and clearly I'll say it again, cover albums are rarely a good idea. And just to rub it in a bit, I've got at least two more to review in the upcoming months. One is so-so, one potentially very good.

Three (or four) years ago, I got Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs' disk Under the Covers, vol 1. Clearly with the title alone, they had planned to release more than one disk - and they have.

Volume 1 is music from the '60s. Volume 2 is music from the '70s. By the time they hit Volume 3, they should be able to cover their own music without taking it out on other poor unsuspecting artists.

I will give Volume 1 this - for every good song they covered, they did two that were marginal, or just out and out bad. ...and they covered stuff they never should have touched. Some songs are too ingrained in the culture to be done again - let alone done well.

Volume 2 doesn't quite have the same ratio of good to bad. It skews way to the bad. And they cover wayyyyyyyy too many songs, again, that are too popular to be covered correctly.

I will cop to liking Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet - hence my purchase. But man, do these two suck the life out of most of this music. (for the record, the cd is like 14 songs, the iTunes version has an additional 12 tracks. oy.) More to dislike.

Let's review the real bad tracks - shall we? Or at least list them: "You're So Vain". "All the Young Dudes". "Here Comes My Girl". "I Want to be Sedated" (no seriously - they cover this!) "Dreaming" (yes, the Blondie song. omg - painful!) "Maggie May" (it was never a good song to begin with).

But there are a few good surprises. The Raspberries' "Go All the Way". Elvis Costello's "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love & Understanding". Bad Finger's "Baby Blue".....and Bread's "Everything I Own".

Then there's just the truly unexpected: Queens "Killer Queen" anyone? Weird! Sweet just creeps me out on his vocals. Just a total turn-off. Grateful Dead's "Sugar Magnolia"? It just sounds wrong, though they do have the Dead's production detail.

If you must listen to Sweet & Hoffs - I can suggest good samples from their first disk - but this second one is a misstep in a big way.

And if you must get it - check it out from the liberry........for free.