Tacky taffy? Like Dimitri Tiomkin soundtracks, the corny, chintzy confection (i.e., stock orchestra and grain-tank reverb) of this curio exceeds kitsch because of the slightly removed and unaffected manner in which it's received. Not supple, but not unconsidered, a nippy sort of hush prevents these doleful, deadpan duets -- between a saucy 16-year-old and a 40-year-old truck driver -- from getting pigeonholed. The fact that Hazlewood, a checkered semistar who wrote twanged hits for Duane Eddy, can't be categorized easily, (and that only in retrospect is such pabulum spied as fortuitously parodic), makes him a kook, not a genius -- someone for whom fads are a safe haven against the always uncertain future. Marginal pluses: "Jackson," "Lovin' Feelin'," and "Some Velvet Morning."

2002-08-02 - Joe Cormack

track list You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' Elusive Dreams Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman Summer Wine Storybook Children Sundown, Sundown Jackson Some Velvet Morning Sand Lady Bird I've Been Down So Long (It Looks Like Up To Me)