Happy Doing What We're Doing
Happy Doing What We're Doingis an apt title for this second album by Austin's Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands. Not only does it convey the enthusiasm EMQ and the boys have for the British pub rock they cover here, but the song after which the disc is named was written byNick Lowe, who is represented in one way or another by nearly half of the disc's 13 tracks. The most successful of these are the true roots-rock numbers byDucks Deluxe("Love's Melody"),Dave Edmunds("A-1 on the Jukebox") and Lowe in his many incarnations as a member ofBrinsley Schwarz(the title track) andRockpile("When I Write the Book," "You Ain't Nothin' But Fine"), a solo artist ("7 Nights to Rock"), and a writer (Dr. Feelgood's "That's It, I Quit"). And McQueen acquits herself well as a songwriter in the Lowe mode with the only original on the album, "Dirty Little Secret."Less successful, however, are the band's forays into new wave territory. Their versions ofSqueeze's "Annie Get Your Gun" andElvis Costello's "Almost Blue" fail to convey the same passion and lack the spontaneity of the more rocking numbers. "Almost Blue" in particular falls short; McQueen and the Firebrands are best when they stick to their specialty, what she refers to as "roots pop." Perhaps it was deemed too obvious, but they missed a golden opportunity here to record "Labelled with Love" and "Radio Sweetheart." Nevertheless,Happy Doing What We're Doingis, on the whole, a pub rock tribute worth hearing, and--more than that--a successful album in its own right.--Benjamin Lukoff