Robert Everett-Green
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Published on Monday, Nov. 09, 2009 3:51PM EST Last updated on Friday, Nov. 20, 2009 2:56AM EST
Leave Me Alone , the Pointed Sticks, from Three Lefts Make a Right (Northern Electric)
Vancouver's Pointed Sticks cut one well-regarded album of punkish pop songs, and then took a 29-year smoke break. Together again, the band sounds remarkably fresh and current.
Is It Love or Desire , Betty Davis, from Is It Love or Desire (Light in the Attic)
The title's just an ice-breaker. Betty Davis doesn't care why you're feeling that way, so long as you waste no time getting into her red-hot funk groove. A vintage piece of hard-lovin' R&B, from a “lost” 1976 album by the former Mrs. Miles Davis.
And I Love Her , Harry Connick Jr. & Carla Bruni Sarkozy, from Your Songs (French edition only; streaming at musiqueradio.com ) Like a steamy glance that leads nowhere, this Beatles cover is full of unrealized possibility. Connick's soft Latin groove offers a soft bed to the first lady of France, but her breathy vocals never really connect with his knowing, Rat Pack-style.
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