This is the feel-good album of a year that could surely use one. In their evocation of 1960s boy-girl harmonies, Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs conjure an era of comparative innocence, when the single reigned supreme. This collection of fifteen covers recalls that period when artists from the Turtles to Sonny & Cher to Gary Lewis & the Playboys would routinely release albums spotlighting a couple of their hits amid renditions of recent hits by others.
The selection is idiosyncratically inspired, from the album-opening “I Can See The Rain” by the Marmalade (best remembered, when remembered at all, for “Reflections Of My Life”) to lesser-known favorites by better-known artists (“Care Of Cell #44″ by the Zombies, the rapturous “She May Call You Up Tonight” by the Left Banke) to the obligatory Beatles, Beach Boys and Dylan tracks. Given his varied career, Neil Young merits two covers, but two from the same album? (“Cinnamon Girl” plus the title track from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere.)
Sweet’s reedy astringency tempers Hoffs’ breathy alto (which could sound annoyingly affected when she was with the Bangles) as they bring a warmth to the Velvet Underground’s “Sunday Morning” beyond Lou Reed’s ghostly chill, and capture the bittersweet falsetto grandeur of the Beach Boys’ “Warmth Of The Sun”. It may be sacrilege to suggest that their version of “And Your Bird Can Sing” rivals the Beatles’, but their take shows a thorough understanding of why the original is so great.
With harpsichord by Van Dyke Parks, “Different Drum” eclipses Linda Ronstadt’s original with the Stone Poneys, while the electrifying lead guitar of Richard Lloyd (from Television and Sweet’s solo albums) elevates plenty of the rest beyond period pieces. Only the version of Love’s “Alone Again Or” falls considerably short of the original; yet if it leads listeners to that band’s incomparable Forever Changes, it justifies inclusion. Here’s hoping that the “Vol. 1″ of the title is a pledge for more.
