Matthew E. White and Flo Morrissey - Gentlewoman, Ruby Man

Undoubtedly there will be detractors from the view I am going to take, but for this reviewer, Matthew E Smith and Flo Morrissey, excellent artists that they are, have followed the modern trend of putting together whimsical and ill-thought out musical duos. Like Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell, M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel, Anton Newcombe and Tess Parks. All great musicians, well perhaps not Zooey Deschanel, but in their chosen pairing, mediocre and dare I say it, insipid.

I’m sure that the pairings of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, or Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra for instance were to some extent based on artistic precepts, even if they were cute pairings. Matthew E Smith and Flo Morrissey make a cute pairing but their cover versions, though serviceably good in versions of ‘Everyone Loves the Sunshine’ and ‘Look at What the Light’, are annoyingly inessential.

The versions of ‘Grease’ (did we really need that ?) and ‘Suzanne’ are steaming turds that go some way towards provoking lawsuits, and ‘Sunday Morning’ although vibrant, rings with a naivity which is kind of cloying, like a lot of M.Ward’s stuff with Zooey. ‘Heaven Can Wait’ is taken at a funereal pace. Flo Morrissey sings the zesty ‘Govindam’ in impressive style but it’s too late to save this lacklustre effort.