It is no compliment to the Watson Twins' original material that the most resounding dud on their third overall release, and first full album to themselves, is a cover of the Cure's "Just Like Heaven." Since this song will be getting them the most notice, it's only appropriate to begin with it.

In the 20 years since the Cowboy Junkies slowed the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" to an amniotic crawl, thereby impressing stoic college weedheads, this sort of gambit has become a safety blanket for artists of the same ilk, and it seems there will always be people for whom this move is somehow formally daring and not the tasteful-oak-cabinet version of Eurodisco remakes of Bryan Adams songs. If you purchase your coffee at Starbucks, chances are you should be prepared to hear this song a lot.

That said, "Just Like Heaven" at least stands out, which isn't something you can say for much of the rest of Fire Songs. There are pretty moments, sure—the Watsons, Leigh and Chandra, harmonize nicely enough—but their lyrics tend toward the likes of, "Well, you've got angel eyes/But you've got devil's blood/And it makes our lives/A feudal [futile?] kind of love" ("Old Ways"). You'd think they'd have learned something from working with Jenny Lewis on 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat, but whatever the Watson Twins' pedigree, whether you focus hard or let it lie in the background, listening to Fire Songs is like looking at Tupperware.

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