I wrote this in 2022-
And speaking of Brazilian/Danish Garage duos, The Courettes have announced a 2022 tour, though no US dates are listed yet. Are you familiar with The Courettes? They play music with a big wall of sound, fuzzy guitars, and girl group melodies. Not exactly a fresh approach, but I have to admit, "Back In Mono," their newest release, has a few truly infectious songs. But, would anyone have given these songs a second thought if the album cover wasn't a play on "Presenting The Ronettes?" I admit, I only listened because of the cover. And I will also admit, these songs have little weight. By the second spin, I was bored. But how about that album cover?
It's 2026 now, and I had forgotten all about The Courettes until a friend told me how much he was enjoying their most recent, 2024's "The Soul Of The Fabulous Courettes." So I gave it a shot and I was pleasantly surprised.
There is a lot more than novelty going on with this record. It's bigger in sound and style, and well, the songs are better. Their hearts are still in the 60's, but so is mine and I really loved what I heard. Even the legendary La La Brooks of The Crystals makes a few appearances.
5 comments:
I feel like you CAN judge a book (or album) by its cover. My thinking: a book gets made and then assigned to someone to create a cover. The more excitement in the publisher for the book, the more money it gets and/or the more important the artist making the cover. And when the artist loves the book, they get inspired to do great work. So either the book is really good or the publisher is pushing it big time when you see a knockout cover. Quite often it's the artist getting inspired. Hey, they loved it so maybe I will too. Plus,a cover tells you so much about a book: the genre, the age of the audience it's pitched to (kids vs teens vs adults), how sophisticated it might be and so on. The same with albums. We immediately know the Courettes have a sense of music history FAR ahead of most acts, it's clever and polished and funny and tells you exactly what you can expect from the album. They have to deliver, but a good and meaningful cover is so rare, I'm not surprised there was something there worth a spin.
"but a good and meaningful cover is so rare, I'm not surprised there was something there worth a spin."
Except there wasn't, which is why I forgot about the band for the last five years.
The cover was inspired. The music was not. If my friend didn't mention their newest, I wouldn't have heard it.
Definitely has a modern girl group vibe. I really liked what I heard and looking forward to hearing more. Thanks for the heads-up!
Randy
If I had heard "Back to Mono" first I would have written them off but I had never heard of them until I happened upon the new album. I did so on the upcoming vinyl site and because I dug the cover and title of the album I gave it a quick spin on Apple Music. I was rewarded with a fun listen with a lot of really good tunes. The production has been cleaned up a bit, making it a bit more accessible. The former album was too drenched in reverb and echo, like when you get too much sauce with the sweet and sour pork. A very pleasant surprise. I'm glad you thought so too.
Will leave the music notes to others.
I am a gear freak and noted her guitar.
Thought it was an Eastwood, none for their unique styling (Bill Nelson), hers by a Belgium luthier Fabian Schweiger/Fab Guitars
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