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Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs cover The Stone Poneys' "Different Drum"

Robin Williams’ oft-quoted line—well, quoted so frequently that it has lost any tone of humor with which it was originally told—is, “If you can remember the sixties you probably weren’t really there.” I know, the line isn’t really all that humorous but it does make a point: fun isn’t always all that memorable. With that in mind, this record was obviously recorded with a great sense of fun and, as such, isn’t all that memorable. Frankly, I’d already forgotten that I had listened to it by the time the disc had stopped spinning and I predisposed toward liking it. On Under the Covers Vol. 1, pop-tunesmith Matthew Sweet and former-Bangle Susanna Hoffs have assembled a collection of their favorite sixties tunes and covered them with an ear toward making them their own. It’s a decent idea, though it has already been done and done better many times in the past, and the duo—who have taken to calling themselves Sid and Susie—clearly have an affection for the music that they’re covering. Yet apart from delivering some very nice, well-recorded versions of these songs, the pair don’t add anything new to the material. To be sure, it can difficult to tread new water when you’re covering such revered music. Most of the rock nerd heavyweights are represented by the material selected here and Sweet and Hoffs do their best to deliver chestnuts from Neil Young (“Cinnamon Girl” and “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere”), The Velvet Underground (“Sunday Morning”) and Love (“Alone Again Or”) to little effect. I’ve had a few dreams like this in the past: “I wonder what it would sound like if Matthew Sweet sang ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’?” As it turns out, it sounds a lot like karaoke which can be a rip-snortin’ good time if you’re ’faced at some bar with your friends but you probably wouldn't want to record for posterity. Having said that, there are some excellent musical performances from guitarists Richard Lloyd and Ivan Julian (frequent Sweet-collaborators and punk icons) but there’s only so much you can add to another version of “Monday, Monday.” I expect that both Sweet and Hoffs have pretty decent record collections. Let’s hope they dig a little deeper for Vol. II.