Britta Phillips and Dean Wareham: L’Avventura

L’Avventura has the coy sophistication that many of us as children always secretly believed would play a large role in our romantic lives as grown-ups. It’s the sound of smoldering glances exchanged over expertly mixed cocktails, lazy Sunday mornings spent entangled in satin sheets, violet eyes peering from under perfectly affixed fake eyelashes, and long, skinny cigarettes offered from impeccably polished silver cases. Like all these things, L’Avventura doesn’t seem quite real, but it’s pleasant enough to daydream under its spell.

L’Avventura is the product of a side project featuring Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, the easy-on-the-eyes frontman and bassist, respectively, of dream pop gods Luna. Their first album together is comprised mainly of well-chosen covers, with a few originals composed by Wareham and Phillips sprinkled in. It all seems lushly romantic, like watching a movie where two beautiful people fall in love with each other, with a few inevitable but brief stumbles along the way.

The two originals that start the album, “Nightnurse” and “Ginger Snaps”, exhibit L’Avventura‘s best qualities. Phillips and Wareham’s vocals play off each other perfectly, and the string, keyboard and percussive accompaniments are smooth and twinkly. The lyrics are witty and evocative, playful yet clear in meaning. They recall just the right sort of male/female duets, with Wareham and Phillips the heirs to Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin, rather than Justin Guarini and Kelly Clarkson.

Other songs demonstrate a more typically Luna sound, relying heavily on laconic guitar and keyboard riffs and Wareham’s world-weary vocals. “I Deserve It”, even though it’s a lesser-known Madonna cover, sounds like it could have been written for Wareham, as does the spacey “Moonshot”, a Buffy St. Marie cover. The arrangement of the cover of “Random Rules” (penned by goofy indie rockers the Silver Jews) is particularly sly; while the song’s lyrics are seemingly out of place on this album, the tone in which it is delivered makes it fit in perfectly.

Phillips takes lead on several songs, including two that she wrote, “Out Walking” and “Your Baby”. Phillips is a latecomer to Luna, having only joined a few years back after stints as an actress, cartoon singing voice, and musician in other bands, but she’s been an inspired addition. While I tend to like her scratchy little girl voice, both in Luna and on L’Avventura, as it plays off of Wareham’s, I find that I’m not quite as fond of it on its own. It’s a little too mewling, not quite silky enough for the material. Given the level of sophistication for which the album seems to be shooting, on some of the songs I found myself mentally swapping Phillips’ girlish vocals with the subtler, French-accented ones of Dominique Durand of Ivy, a band who are absolute pros at achieving this type of mature, nuanced sound. But it’s only a minor quibble, as the songs are still quite charming.

The album closes with a cover of the Doors’ “Indian Summer”, a suitable counterpart to Luna’s earlier cover of the Beat Happening classic of the same name. It’s low and droning, lulling you off to a hazy sleep after a series of lovely daydreams. You may never wake up next to someone as gorgeous as Dean Wareham or Britta Phillips, but L’Avventura is a rather decent substitute.