Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 31/07/06
Label: Universal Music

Like all really charming musical surprises, no one's been waiting for this one (unless you're 75, that is). But thanks to the red-lipsticked, perma-waved, nylon-stockinged and pencil-skirted Marcella Puppini and her not-strictly-related siblings making out like war-time close-harmony thrushes The Andrews Sisters, it's time to party like it's 1945.

Truth be told, high-concept cover projects have always been a mixed bag, from the good (The Pipettes' '60s girl-group cool and Nouvelle Vague's kitsch new wave resurrections) to the bad (Mike Flowers) and the just plain ugly (Hayseed Dixie and, further back, Dread Zeppelin). But when someone gets it right - a very lucky lucky-dip into pop history's charity shop, served back up with style, wit and attention to detail - the results can be festival set heaven. Which is what we've got here, for one long hot summer at least. And, incidentally, the trio's cleverly-conceived and flawlessly executed website, all Betty Grable poses and cooking tips, is worth the price of the CD all on its own.

It scarcely matters that no one hearing this record will have much of a yardstick to measure the faithfulness or otherwise of Marcella, Kate and Stephanie's renditions of cheery period chart-toppers: "Java Jive"'s brushed-snare sultriness; the twinkling, creamy-smooth "Mr Sandman"; the tuba-and-vibraphone swoon of "Bei Mir Bist Du Schon"; "Heebie Jeebies"' purring pussycat jive. "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (From Company B)", served up in breakneck-fast tempo, feels like a rare misstep, but a gutsy set-closing "In The Mood" - a cappella except for finger-snapping - testifies to the vocal chops, genuine affection and careful hand with potentially fatal campery that makes this project straighten up and fly right.

Then, too, producer Benoit Charest - the man behind the '40s-pastiche soundtrack to animated film "Belleville Rendezvous" - has put his previous form to excellent use, band-leading a host of hep-cat sidemen (chief among them Nick Pini and his tall, dark and handsome double bass). Which brings us to the real talking points of this record, at least for those of us with no memory of National Service: covers of instantly familiar tunes by artists who weren't even a twinkle in their grandparents' eyes when "Falling In Love Again" was toppermost of the poppermost. At least one - be it a deliriously woozy, strolling-bassline "Wuthering Heights", a perversely perky "I Will Survive", a scattily peppy "Heart Of Glass" or a mischievously finger-wagging croon through The Smiths' "Panic" - is guaranteed to tickle your fancy.

What's more, don't discount the possibility that even your grumpiest septuagenarian neighbour, overhearing the Puppini gals' snazzy platter on your gramophone next Sunday teatime, will leave off opining about the decay of modern civilisation. For at least half an hour.

    by Jennifer Nine