Sony
Pop, 2004

Wait a minute, Wilson Phillips are still together? I confess that I still listen to their 1990 debut now and then. This collection of covers however is quite dull. The ladies haven’t evolved and they sound just like they did back in 1990, which isn’t so good considering that fourteen years have passed in the meantime. Furthermore, many of the songs here lose their original pizzazz when given the ladies’ sleeping pill treatment. It is as if they set out to alienate as many fans of their parents, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, and more with this CD.

There are some passable renditions but even then, these songs are flat. Go Your Own Way sounds as if Stevie Nicks have finally overdosed and are slurring her way to her last breath. Jackson Browne’s Doctor My Eyes and Joni Mitchell’s California sound like someone has injected tranquilizer darts a little too much into the arrangement. But these songs are still better than the Linda Ronstadt’s appropriately titled You’re No Good and Daddy Dearest’s Monday Monday.

With songs ranging from okay but flat to outright flat, California is the perfect answer to sleepless nights.