Monday, November 18, 2013

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Are Lost in the '80s


Sid 'n' Susie are up to their old tricks again, this time covering an eclectic batch of songs from the '80s -- R.E.M., Tom Petty, the dB's, the English Beat, Echo and the Bunnymen, etc. -- for "Under the Covers. Vol. 3." As with the previous two collections, it's the songs I know the least -- "The Bulrushes" by the Bongos, "Towers of London" by XTC -- and/or interpreted by an opposite-gender-from-the-original -- Susanna singing Dave Edmunds' "Girls Talk" and Lindsey Buckingham's "Trouble" -- that stick with me most. This is really saying something, however, seeing as Susanna also sings "Kid" (Pretenders) and "They Don't Know" (Kirsty MacColl), which are two of my all-time favorite songs. That they felt the need to include two songs that were actually from 1979 -- both mentioned above (can you spot 'em?) isn't really a compliment to the decade from which their careers were born. But then again, they're doing the "Vogue" dance in the promotional photo, so perhaps their cutoff point for new decades is different from mine! Order HERE.

1 comment:

SSSDC1 said...

"Towers of London" is from a great XTC album, Black Sea. Check it out! It's one of my favorites, almost up there with English Settlement and Skylarking.