MUSIC REVIEWS: VICKIKRISTINABARCELONA

VickiKristinaBarcelona, Pawn Shop Radio. Faithful-to-the-original cover versions can be impressive but also rather pointless: If you’re not bringing something new to the table, why bother? That’s not a question you’ll need to ask regarding the New York City–based VickiKristinaBarcelona, whose name echoes the only slightly different title of a 2008 Woody Allen film. The trio—who offer three-part harmonies and take turns singing lead—pay tribute to Tom Waits on this debut album with inventively reworked versions of a dozen of his songs, including four that Waits wrote with his wife, Kathleen Brennan. 

Even if the group hadn’t revamped the original versions, which feature Waits’s distinctive sandpapery vocals, these songs would have sounded very different coming from a female vocal trio. But VickiKristinaBarcelona’s arrangements and instrumentation shine a whole new light on the material, which includes “Jersey Girl” (a Latin-flavored rendition of a number that Bruce Springsteen has also memorably covered), plus “Cold Cold Ground,” “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” “Tango Till They’re Sore,” and six more Waits gems. (Jeff Burger)