Review: Dean and Britta & Sonic Boom: A Peace Of Us
I usually avoid Christmas songs which I used to avoid like the plague. But thankfully my favorite indie rockstars Dean and Britta (from Luna) teamed up with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) to dig some obscure songs out of the crates to make a Christmas album that is worth a few spins—year after year.
A Peace Of Us, despite the puntastic title, lives up to its name, by taking ‘60s pop, country, R&B, Nilsson/Newman collabs, a couple standards and a track from a late great indie singer’s final album to bring us all together. The result is a beautiful and consistently listenable album. A lot of it has to do with the trifecta. Dean and Britta’s best album in my opinion was L’avventura which was produced by Tony Visconti. That’s a high bar there, but with Sonic Boom at the helm they’re elevated. The songs are reverent without being irreverent and faithful without being a carbon copy.
Dean Wareham has done many covers throughout his career with Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean & Britta, etc. They always end up sounding like Dean Wareham wrote them—and I mean that as a compliment. A Peace Of Us is no exception.
The album begins with “Snow is falling in Manhattan,” a song originally written by David Berman as Purple Mountains, the only album he released under that moniker during his lifetime. Berman was better known for Silver Jews. Knowing his backstory it’s a sober beginning but it doesn’t last.
“Do you know how Christmas trees are grown?” is a nice departure form the original. Originally by Nina Van Pallandt, it appeared in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, arguably one of the best Bond films, with the best cast, even if people will never condone George Lazenby as Bond. The original harkens back to John Barry’s score which always incorporates the James Bond theme even if it’s tangentially so. It’s schmaltzy and string and harp drenched and has the prerequisite la la la’s by children. Dean and Britta’s version keeps the strings but is decidedly more adult.
“Silver Snowflakes” starts entering into traditional territory as it’s basically “What Child is This/Greensleeves with wordless vocalizing. Have I mentioned how beautiful the vocals are on this album?
And while the A Peace Of Us scours the record bins for hidden or forgotten gems (Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Paper,” Roger Miller’s “Old Toy Trains,” and Harry Nilsson’s cover of Randy Newman’s “Snow”) the album is best when it just embraces the spirit of the season.
Take “Stille Nacht,” for example. Dean’s on lead singing the song in German before switching to English. I know it’s because Sonic Boom is connected but I kept expecting a Spacemen 3 guitar-heavy freakout at the end which either would have been awesome or a huge fail. I’ll go with awesome.
“Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy” finally gets an update here. The story is David Bowie insisted on another song to go along with the traditional one because he hated traditional stuff but “Peace on Earth’s” lyrics represent a low point in naive hippy crap. I suspect Bowie just wanted to live out his Anthony Newley trip which is what he aspired to be during his nascent years. But no amount of updates can rescue it.
Speaking of naive hippies, John Lennon’s “Happy Xmas (War is Over)” closes out the album. Lennon was adept at writing inane lyrics meant for the facile among us. “All You Need Is Love” comes to mind. But “Happy Xmas” is on another level of stupid. I can’t believe I am saying this, but this is the one time that a children’s singalong chorus would have helped. It was the only thing that was rescued the original. Hell, it was the whole point of the original. John Lennon was the original “Think of the children,” pundit. Without the kiddos singing it’s as empty and hollow as a political slogan.
That being said, Dean, Britta and Sonic Boom are in fine form throughout this album. Their voices all compliment each other, the production is filled with echoes, reverb and squeezy spongy textures. By the way, squeezy spongy isn’t a musical term; I have synesthesia so that’s what I see when I hear certain tracks.
Anyway, it’s good. Should you throw some of these songs on a Christmas playlist? Absolutely. They will be welcome additions.
And once you’re done with A Peace Of Us, check out Low’s Christmas album. Like Dean and Britta, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker were what many indie couples aspired to. Talented, effortlessly cool and sexy.
But Low’s connection was on another level partially because they were religiously devout, but also because Mimi Parker’s voice was angelic and one that is greatly missed. I once saw them play at CMU in Pittsburgh to a small (under 200) audience. It was in an auditorium and we were all seated. Someone brought their baby to the show. And when the baby started crying in between songs, Mimi sang the baby to sleep. From the stage. With one song.
Like Dean and Britta and Sonic Boom, they chose some obscure tracks to cover as well. And like Dean and Britta, any song that Low covered instantly became theirs as no other harmonies can reach that frequency. Their version “Silent Night” still gives me chills.
I know we have a few weeks to go before Christmas but I’m doing this now because I’m off to Spain in a couple of days for work. I’m hoping to return with a new ad campaign and a ton of local music to share.