Sep 27, 2002 By "guestroom," Ivy 4 min read

Just as kudzu claims as its own anything it wraps its branches around, Ivy imprints its quintessential sound on the songs of others with the cover album “Guestroom.” Fronted by French native singer Dominique Durand, who gets deft, sophisticated support from instrumentalists Andy Chase and Adam Schlesinger, Ivy evenly splits its 10-track album between previously recorded covers (some of them rarities) and all-new recordings.

The Cure’s “Let’s Go to Bed” is overhauled with beguiling femininity and lush electronics, and the Blow Monkeys’ “Digging Your Scene” is imbued with casual sweetness. Ivy also goes on a charming acoustic diversion with a revamp of House of Love’s “I Don’t Know Why I Love You,” and Durand takes a crafty turn at fellow Frenchman Serge Gainsbourg’s poeticism on a rendition of his “L’Anamour.”

More improbable covers that work surprisingly well are Ivy’s mellow modern take on Steely Dan’s “Only a Fool Would Say That” and the trio’s conversion of the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” into an eerie slice of somnambulism.

Other covers are of more obscure acts, and for many listeners they might as well be Ivy originals, including the languid version of Orange Juice’s “Too Sensitive” and the airy, synthetic dance arrangement of Papas Fritas’ “Say Goodbye.”

Clocking in at only about 35 minutes and considering the fact this is strictly a cover album, “Guestroom” may feel a bit inconsequential. Yet there’s little fault in Ivy’s stylistic execution.

Rating (five possible): 4

“The Art of Translation,” GRITS

The rap duo GRITS is a little bit sugary, a tad salty at times and occasionally on the cheesy side. And if Coffee (Stacy Jones) and Bonafide (Teron Carter) don’t like food analogies, well, they need to cook up a new name.

The Nashville-based act is set to dovetail into the growing wave of Southern rap acts who are helping put that whole East Coast vs. West Coast nonsense into the rap history books. And through positive messages and obvious respect for humankind, GRITS turns gangsta rap on its head and exposes those thug wannabes as the foolish little boys and girls that they are.

Coffee and Bonafide aren’t strictly goody-goody, however, and their new “The Art of Translation” isn’t above a little quasi-naughty fun. They just manage to do it without demeaning women and glorifying drugs and violence.

Balancing the squeaky-clean romance song “Be Mine” and the celebrations of Christianity on tracks such as “Believe” and “Sunny Days,” GRITS shifts into party mode with infectious, low-humming choruses on “Here We Go” and “Ooh Aah.” The rappers are more earnest on the grainy “Get It” and video-game-ish “Make Room,” and they’re outright grandstanding on “Tennessee Boys,” a magnetic shout-out to the Volunteer State featuring whoops and cheerleader-like chants.

GRITS goes awry with overuse of kitschy, teeny-voiced backing vocalists, and they take themselves too seriously on a grating “Seriously” (complete with abrasive electric guitar). Plus they bring “The Art of Translation” to an end with a messy title track that strings together a pastiche of foreign-language sound bites.

But overall, these GRITS are smooth.

Rating: 3-1/2

“The Joy of Sing-Sing,” Sing-Sing

Sing-Sing sets the tone for girly melancholy right out of the gate on its electro-pop debut, “The Joy of Sing-Sing,” opening the album with the airy mystique of the track “Everything.” The U.K. duo of Emma Anderson (former guitarist for Lush) and singer Lisa O’Neill then repeatedly trades on that provocative (and lucrative) musical archetype, the waif.

The act released individual songs in Great Britain for several years before compiling this album that comes to North America via the indie label Manifesto. Included in the often-danceable mix are singles such as “I Can See You,” a combo of lulling vocals and showy electronic orchestration, and “I’ll Be,” a ginger love spell with bumping beat and singing birds.

Framed by synthetic trickery and guitars, O’Neill conveys a seeming naivete via childlike – though crystalline and unwavering – vocals. Her electric cool on “Far Away From Love” is as breezy as fictional Brazilian retro-pop, and her soft cloud of vocals is all the persuasive energy the buoyant “You Don’t Know” needs.

Yet the shimmering and instantly accessible “Feels Like Summer” is the lilting centerpiece of “The Joy of Sing-Sing,” recalling classic pop partly with the use of a sample of “Mony Mony” by Tommy James and the Shondells.

So mesmerizing is this one song that it’s easy to overlook the rare dull moments elsewhere on the playful album.

Rating: 4

(Contact Chuck Campbell of The Knoxville News-Sentinel in Tennessee at http://www.knoxnews.com.)

SHNS