The sound of lovers basking in mutual affection is a generally unenlightening listening experience. But when the lovers are Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips — collaborators in the final phase (2000-2005) of the rock band Luna — the basking does have an undertow of jittery intrigue.
On Back Numbers, their first post-Luna and second full-length album (following 2003′s L’Avventura), Wareham and Phillips supplement the intrigue with a characteristic troll through their record collections. The hip obscurities unearthed include the Donovan B-side “Teen Angel” and the Lee Hazlewood trip “You Turned My Head Around”, originally sung by Ann-Margret.
With direction and suggestions from producer Tony Visconti (who recorded Back Numbers shortly after finishing up the most recent Morrissey record) and British synthesizer geek Sonic Boom, Wareham and Phillips proceed as expected: He croaks quaveringly, she exhales dreamily. Amid the drifting echoes, within which the entire album chimes like a chilled flashback, the addition of vibraphone virtuoso Sean McCaul seems no more than graciously fortuitous.
Yet as the songs glide on, the main duo emerges with steady if shy sweetness. In the pacific country & western lilt of “Say Goodnight”, they could be companions to Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley in lullaby mood. In the candy-coated visions of “White Horses” — the theme song from a British children’s TV show circa 1968 — they could be the ideal aunt and uncle.
As it is, Wareham and Phillips became husband and wife during the recording of Back Numbers, a fact that would be immaterial if their connection to each other weren’t so alluringly evident in this music.
