Britta Phillips
Luck or Magic
Reviewed by: Max Miller
In the ‘50s and ‘60s, it was common practice for up-and-coming pop acts to stock their debut albums with covers of hit songs. These covers coaxed listeners into giving a new artist a chance by promising familiar tunes, while simultaneously letting the artist showcase their ability to translate songs in their own style. Of course, it was just as often a marketing ploy for a label to pad out a handful of original songs and claim they had an LP. This is probably why, as pop artists got more high-minded, the highest honor became writing whole albums of original, cohesive material. In the streaming era, however, with so many artists competing for listeners’ attention in a market once again largely driven by singles, the tactic of carefully interspersing original songs with covers on an album seems wholly viable once more.
That being said, Britta Phillips is hardly a “new” artist. After voicing the titular character on the popular ‘80s cartoon Jem, Phillips formed the alt-rock band the Belltower before joining Luna and marrying Luna/Galaxie 500 founder Dean Wareham. The two still perform as the duo Dean & Britta, and often score (and sometimes appear in) the films of Noah Baumbach. And yet somehow, with such a long and varied career, Phillips has yet to release a solo album until now.
Luck or Magic is comprised of five original songs and five covers, ranging from the Cars’ smash hit “Drive” to Evie Sands’ beatific “One Fine Summer Morning.” With the former, Phillips does little to update the already chilled-out, synth-laden original, instead opting to remind us how heavily such ‘80s pop songs have informed modern artists like Grimes or Future Islands. On the latter, Phillips keeps the song’s acoustic skeleton intact, while emphasizing the percussion and replacing ‘68’s de rigeur string backing with an airy, synthesized equivalent. Dennis Wilson’s “Fallin’ In Love” gets a similar treatment, while Fleetwood Mac’s immortal “Landslide” gets the most drastic reworking, with Lindsey Buckingham’s cascading fingerpicking replaced by bubbling synths and an echoing, distorted guitar solo.
Phillips’ original compositions blend nicely with the covers, merging ‘80s dream pop with a wash of Velvet Underground & Nico psychedelia. Opener “Daydream” floats a marching acoustic number atop a sea of lush synth pads and strings. “Do It Last” is structured around a funky bass line and Phillips’ hooky chorus of “I don’t care who did it first, ‘cause I’m gonna’ do it last.”
The only problem Luck or Magic has is that, while masterfully executed, none of the covers surpass their original versions in any significant way. What’s more, Phillips’ original compositions are compelling enough to make the listener wish she had loaded the album with more of them. Perhaps her covers of “Drive” or “Landslide” will be enough to draw an audience to her originals, but now Phillips has to hope that attention won’t wander elsewhere before she has a chance to show off more of what she is capable of.
Rating: Listenable
