Sweet DNS

Comment from R. M. Ettinger
Time April 16, 2010 at 11:05 pm

I am 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 forget history…..blah blah blah…..

I’ve said it before – and clearly I’ll say it again, cover albums are rarely a good idea.

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.) 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. Rating: 2 / 5

Comment from M. Tarr
Time April 16, 2010 at 11:07 pm

I just rec’d this CD in today’s mail & am listening to it now. It really does bring back alot of good high school & college memories. I listened to these songs & artists & saw alot of them in concert: the Dead, the Raspberries, Fleetwood Mac, Clapton, Bowie, Carly, Tom Petty, Yes, Todd Rundgren, Linda Ronstadt, John Lennon, George Harrison, Bread & Rod Stewart. This is another good effort by Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs: fairly faithful cover versions of songs you’ve heard many times before by the original artists, but somehow they manage to put their own “spin” on them. Rating: 4 / 5

Comment from James S. Young
Time April 16, 2010 at 11:42 pm

if you liked vol 1 you will also like this one. i am a geat van but was skeptical when i heard they were covering Yes. But they bdo a great job, especially Susanna who someone gets a jon anderson sound out of her voice. If you did notmget vol 1 then get both as it is a surprisingly great job. Rating: 4 / 5

Comment from amginstl
Time April 17, 2010 at 2:09 am

Volume 1 was much better owing largely to better selection of songs. These tunes on Volume 2 are not as conducive to Sweet/Hoffs cover treatment. Just too many popular songs in my opinion. Rating: 2 / 5

Comment from 7 Zark 11
Time April 17, 2010 at 2:46 am

I’m a big fan of both artists, and I really want to like their collaboration. I thought Vol1 had some nice covers. The songs they are covering on Vol2 are all great, so I had high hopes when purchasing the MP3 album with bonus ‘disc’. (it’s the most affordable way to go, btw). Overall, I’m mostly satisfied with this one, but some of the songs are not suited for Hoffs voice. I realize their intent is to stick to the original sound, but at times it seems like they are just going through the motions.

I saw an interview with Sweet where he says they are going to work on a new album for Hoffs that will be more her ‘style’ of music, so that should be interesting.

Where’s the digital booklet for this, or did I delete it accidentally? I see in the listing that there are some guest stars on it but you wouldn’t know it otherwise.

In summary: there are enough gems on this one to warrant a purchase, but there could be more. Hopefully they will interpret the songs a bit more for Vol3. Rating: 3 / 5