Move over, Weezer. There’s another classic-rock covers album in town. And this one takes things even more seriously. For his latest user-friendly release, singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton — who has earned a Tony nomination for his work on Spongebob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical, and an Emmy nomination for his musical contributions to The Good Fight — focuses on the soft-rock sounds of the super ’70s. Actually, fixates might be the better verb: He fully and freelyadmits his goal with this 14-song set was not to update or alter the songs, but recreate them note-for-note. So that’s exactly what he does. Which means you get perfect Xeroxes of light-rock standards like America’s Sister Golden Hair, 10cc’s The Things We Do For Love, Eagles’ New Kid in Town, Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street and plenty more — all faithfully rendered right down to every handclap, horn line and harmony vocal. As a labour of love, it’s undeniably impressive as hell. But ultimately, it just reminds you how good the original versions were in the first place. Some Guys — thanks specifically to one admittedly talented guy named Coulton — proves there is such a thing as being too perfect.
