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Music CD - Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs: Under The Covers, Vol. 1
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Music CD: Under The Covers, Vol. 1
Artist: Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, Matthew Sweet, Susanna Hoffs
List Price: $15.98
Our Price: $5.90
Your Save: $ 10.08 ( 63% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Shout Factory
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Tracks:
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1. I See The Rain (The Marmalade)
2. And Your Bird Can Sing (The Beatles)
3. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bob Dylan)
4. Who Knows Where The Time Goes? (Fairport Convention)
5. Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young And Crazy Horse)
6. Alone Again Or (Love)
7. Warmth Of The Sun (The Beach Boys)
8. Different Drum (The Stone Poneys, featuring Linda Ronstadt)
9. The Kids Are Alright (The Who)
10. Sunday Morning (The Velvet Underground)
11. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Neil Young And Crazy Horse)
12. Care Of Cell #44 (The Zombies)
13. Monday Monday (The Mamas And The Papas)
14. She May Call You Up Tonight (The Left Banke)
15. Run To Me (The Bee Gees)
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0826663976540
Label: Shout Factory
Manufacturer: Shout Factory
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Shout Factory
Release Date: 2006-04-18
Studio: Shout Factory
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs - Under The Covers, Vol. 1
Comment: This recording is by the exquisitely talented team of Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs, who obviously love each of the songs and artists from the 1960's and '70's they've chosen to cover. The selection is wonderful if you like slightly obscure or forgotten pop gems (e.g., Alone Again Or by Love, I See The Rain by The Marmalade, and She May Call You Up Tonight by The Left Banke) as well as a few more frequently heard songs. The versions here are uniformly gorgeous, compelling, and heartwarming. Some of them are uncannily like the originals. I have never heard a better recording of cover tunes. Bravo, Ms. Hoffs and Mr. Sweet!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Recording not very good
Comment: With so many others having already given detailed reviews of this CD, there is no need for me to elaborate here. Instead, I'll just briefly say what I think is most relevant about this disc. Other reviewers have said that this disc is well-recorded. It is not. It is hard and glassy-sounding and tiring, especially when listened to on better stereo equipment, though it is less problematic on portable CD players and headphones. The music itself includes some great songs, though I did not like some of them. For what it is, this music is well enough performed here, but the recording is not very good. I'd rather have my money back.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Under the covers
Comment: I have to admit I am a big fan of The Bangles. Matthew Sweet I was never really a fan of. I came across UNDER THE COVERS VOL. 1 by the pair at my local library earlier this week. I had heard about this cd when it first came out. I decided to check it out to hear Matthew and Susanna's versions of a various mix of popular retro pop songs. Matthew and Susanna are fictional couple named Sid and Susie. I guess the record label wasn't too big on the concept behind the cover album therefore put a kibosh on the famous pair going by their fictional names for this project.
Surprisingly I liked this album, or most of it anyways. There were some songs that I wasn't familiar with but it didn't stop me from enjoying the catchy power pop from Matthew and Susanna. I didn't care much for the duo's cover of "Cinnamon Girl". Their vocals didn't match well with the distorted guitars, plus I never liked the song to begin with. I also didn't care much for their version of The Who's "The Kids are Alright". I don't care for the melodies. My personal favorite song is "Sunday Morning". This song perfectly suits Susanna's vocals.
Despite the few songs I didn't care for, I thought Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs put together a well crafted power pop album. Their vocals harmonized well together but I do prefer it when Susanna is harmonizing with her fellow Bangles. All in all this is a good, fun album.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A breeze from the past.
Comment: No, not a blast, just a refreshing breeze. Was any new ground in pop music broken here? Nope. But it's fun and well done all the way through, and some of the great classics of the '60 get tweaked a bit, with great reverence, so that they are both old and new at the same time.
My one criticism is based on my purpose for buying it. I am in desperate need of music that my two young boys can enjoy and that won't drive me stark raving mad with boredom. I was hoping this would fit the bill, but the psychodelic first track "I See The Rain" is about the least accessible of the entire recording and my kids immediately decided they didn't like this CD.
Of course, I can always try again with the CD player on random play mode, but it got me thinking that with a little tweakage here and there this could have been a real breakthrough into the child's music market, since it seems to be a trend to record covers of classics and market them to kids.
Be that as it may, Susanna Hoff's voice is as distinctive as it was in the heyday of the Bangles, and since this CD says "Vol 1" on it I can only hope that there will be additional volumes to follow. I get it, even if my kids don't.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Boast for the Bygone
Comment: Apparently, Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs were going to bill themselves as "Sid & Susie." Glad the Shout label has their names on the release, because it made me look twice & eventually get this disc. There really aren't weak tracks on this CD. Cover versions can add to an original or well-known track, simply be a carbon copy or sometimes make you want to go back to the original disc. Two of these tracks have spent a great deal of time in my personal top ten rotation. I think my very favorite, which is a favorite because I kept playing it off the Left Banke record repeatedly back in its day and haven't heard it elsewhere, is "She May Call You Up Tonight." Ian Matthews did record a version of it, but the Left Banke's baroque pop was a unique sound. Sid & Susie give it a hard edge complete with soaring harmonies and jangling guitars, "I've been telling lines I never knew, all to keep that girl away from you." It's a luscious cover, not an obvious choice. Also a wonderful cover is "And Your Bird Can Sing" that pumps energy into what was a minor recording for the Beatles, but gleams with Sweet & Hoffs, "When your prize possessions start to wear you down, look in my direction, I'll be round." "Monday Monday" which will be one of the more familiar tracks is also given an excellent rendition with Hoffs proudly singing the "ba-da, ba-da's" like a boast for the bygone. The track has a stunning energy and is pure delight. I particularly like how the reverb flows into the break before the final chorus resumes. Fairport Convention & Judy Collins are closely identified with the Sandy Denny classic "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." Susan Cowsill recorded a cover of it on her recent "Just Believe It" set that went to the top of my favorite tracks of the year, as did the entire CD. Sid & Susie do a great version here, although I still go back to Collins' crystal Colorado voice and Susan's wonderful reading. I also enjoy their version of the Bee Gees' "Run to Me." The Bee Gees are kind of like the musical equivalent of Woody Allen -- it's hard not to sound like them, much as its hard for other actors not to sound like Woody Allen when doing his dialogue. Their rhythms and sound are so distinctive. This track is a contemplative gem that closes the disc. There are no weak tracks on this set, which makes me hope that a volume two does arrive! Enjoy!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Sid (Matthew Sweet, after his character's name in the Austin Powers band Ming Tea) and Susie (Susanna Hoffs, who joined him and Mike Myers in belting out "BBC" on the soundtrack) are in as fine voice as ever on Under the Covers, Vol. 1, a 15-song collection of tunes first made famous by the likes of the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Who. And man, were they born to sing this stuff. Both the Bangles and Sweet discographies are derivative--in the best possible sense--of late-'60s pop-rock, and who didn't love the Merry-Go-Round, Grass Roots, Simon & Garfunkel, and Big Star covers Hoffs and company scattered among their originals? Recorded at Sweet's home studio in the Hollywood Hills, the album opens strong with "I See the Rain," a Marmalade song from 1967 that Jimi Hendrix called the year's best British single but was a hit only in the Netherlands. Maybe Sweet's stinging, ringing fretwork (he plays most of the non-percussion instruments on this disc) and Hoffs's throwback vocals will rectify that, nearly 40 years later. The two proceed to nail the Beatles' "And Your Bird Can Sing," one of the high points on Revolver, and score similarly with Fairport Convention's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" (Hoffs in full ballad mode), the Stone Poneys' "Different Drum," the Who's "The Kids Are Alright," Love's "Alone Again Or," and a pair of Neil Young numbers, "Cinnamon Girl" and "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere." Some of the selections do miss the mark--Hoffs's smoky-sweet backing vocals seem a little misplaced on Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "The Warmth of the Sun" was probably the wrong Beach Boys track for Sweet to attempt (Brian Wilson himself strains at those high notes nowadays). But by and large this is a delightful power-pop excursion. Van Dyke Parks's liner notes, keyboards, and string arrangements make it that much better, as do Sweet collaborator Ric Menck's drums, Ed Fotheringham's illustrations, and Henry Diltz's photographs (Hoffs looks as stunning today as she did when laying down All Over the Place). --Benjamin Lukoff More Sid & Susie
Different Light
The Bangles | 
Doll Revolution
The Bangles | 
Austin Powers
Original Soundtrack | 
Greatest Hits
The Bangles | 
Girlfriend
Matthew Sweet | 
Time Capsule: The Best Of
Matthew Sweet |
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