I generally turn my nose at covers albums. I can’t even remember the last one that I actually liked.
The new project from the Bird & the Bee, though, is interesting enough that I’m willing to temporarily lift my ban on entire albums of remakes. The dream-pop duo from Los Angeles is releasing “Interpreting the Masters; A Tribute to Daryl Hall & John Oates” today. Yes, you read that correctly. Not too many years after H2O’s own somewhat ill-advised covers album, a reasonably popular pop group is devoting an entire album to the catalog of one of the most popular duos in history. If this had come out ten years ago, there’d probably be an element of satire involved, but there’s been a groundswell of good vibes for Daryl and John these past couple of years. Everyone who considered them a guilty pleasure has come out of the closet, so to speak (I, of course, was never *in* the closet regarding my unabashed love for H2O).
“Interpreting the Masters” is the only one of this week’s new releases that I find myself interested in, but that high-pitched squeal you hear is thousands upon thousands of teenagers who are rejoicing that the new Justin Bieber is out today. I’ve gotta say, I’m not a Bieb hater. As far as teen idols go, he seems fairly talented (he can play a couple of instruments and appears to take an active hand in writing his own material). I’ve gotta say, though, as someone who checks Twitter from time to time, the endless tweets from members of his army are a little annoying. Unless he has a Jackson/Timberlake-like breakthrough, 85% of those screaming girls will have moved on to other music three years from now.
Also this week”: another volume of the “Now That’s What I Call Music” series, the return of R&B singer Monica, a new one from indie faves She & Him, a live set from the Pet Shop Boys (really??), the final studio effort from The Scorpions and a new one from Mindy McCready, who apparently found time in between doing drugs, getting arrested and boinking baseball players to record an album.
Get a full list of this week’s releases and any even vaguely interesting release arriving in the near future from Pause and Play, and check out The Bird & the Bee interpreting another group of blue-eyed soul icons, The Bee Gees.