Susanna Hoffs

Susanna Hoffs
$14.98
Nothing beats buying an album that doesn't try to be anthing but good listening. Where she disappeared to after this I don't know, but it's almost as if Ms. Hoffs knew she was going away and just wanted to leave a little something behind to show what she was like as a solo artist. The songs are most the most part a little more original than usual and very nicely sung and produced. The two hidden tracks are quirky takes on 70s(?) AM radio standards that turn out cool.

Under The Covers: Vol. 2
$14.99
Look, I loved the first one. And when I saw the track list of this one I very nearly salivated-- two of my favorite artists performing a slew of my very favorite songs. I was looking forward to this release for months.

And then it arrived...

How, I ask, can something that seems so exquisite on paper turn out to be so boring?

I think that the fault lies in the extent to which these are, indeed, such faithful covers. I generally think there are two valid approaches to doing a cover. One is to reinvent the song, making it your own in the process (e.g., Jeff Buckley's version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah.") The other is to play the song basially straight, in the process showing how the artist of the original influenced the artist doing the cover (e.g., any Dave Edmunds cover of a Chuck berry song.)

These covers meet neither criteria. They are note-perfect, which seems to render them rather pointlss. For example, you can't hear "Couldn't I Just Tell You" without immediately wanting to hear the Todd original instead; ditto Big Star's "Back of a Car" and most of the others.

Clearly a labor of love, and I share the love, but a little less reverence would have gone a long way. And again, I loved volume 1, and am a sucker for Sweet and Hoffs and love all these songs. Bellieve me, I wanted to love this. it was like getting a date with the hottest girl in school, and half way through wishing you could just go home and watch TV.

When You're a Boy
$9.98
This album is pure magic. It's more pop than Bangles but it's incredibly stylish pop, the production is eclectic and sometimes very pseudo-60's, the song are beautiful (most of them should be N1 hits in the perfect world) and Susanna frankly never sung better than here! This album deserved to sell millions but there's never justice in show-biz. I can't think of a single pop record more criminally underrated than WHEN YOU'RE A BOY.

The All Nighter
$14.98
I love this movie, always did..yea, it's a little cheesy, but hey, not much from the 80's isn't .....it's fun!