Pitchfork

Sometimes a cover lets you hear something new and great, an underlying strength the original interpreter may have missed. And sometimes a cover turns out like this. Crooner Hawley's usual taste in songwriting tends toward seasoned professionals who sweat every chord change-- your Bacharachs, Walkers, Hazlewoods, and Orbisons. The Jesus and Mary Chain's Reid brothers, on the other hand, prefer the kind of tunes you write when you've been playing guitar for a month. The original JAMC recording of "Some Candy Talking" bridged the noise assault of Psychocandy and the druggy acoustic turn of Darklands, and as usual it got by on lots of reverb and guitars that sounded just so. Hawley's straight reading is warm and inviting but shows a song WAY underwritten, something crying out for attitude or noise or at least a funny haircut to make it whole.