Mary Weiss was the lead singer of the Shangri-Las, and pairing her with garage rock classicist Greg Cartwright and the Reigning Sound seems like a match made in heaven. Actually, it’s more of a match made in purgatory—good, but everybody sounds slightly constrained. Every song is fun, and even though “Cry About the Radio” has slightly embarrassing “What’s wrong with kids today?” lyrics, the chorus is rhythmically and melodically smart anyway. When they grind out the punky “Don’t Come Back,” you can hear the Shangri-Las’ influence on Blondie and Joey Ramone.

 

Understandably, Weiss chose not to step back into the girl group world of epic melancholy the Shangri-Las inhabited, but she remains a dramatic, theatrical singer. Cartwright wrote most of the album and his songs are playlets Weiss performs in, but that keeps everything a bit at arm’s length here. You don’t believe she’s a teenaged girl; you’re aware she’s a professional singer who was once part of a great singing group, and that makes it harder for her to disappear into stories. The mannered, genre-appropriate performance by the band further that sense of distance—it’s solid but slightly faceless. It doesn’t make the tracks more immediate, but it doesn’t hearken back enough to yesteryear to locate the songs in the theatrical space Weiss once inhabited, either.

 

The prospect of Weiss performing with the Reigning Sound had Garageland buzzing with anticipation, and the results are good but not great. Don’t believe the hype.