Billie Joe Armstrong & Norah Jones - Foreverly

Now here is something that nobody could have predicted. The jazz, blues, folk star Jones and the pop punk rocker Armstrong recording a duets album but one of greatness from the Everly Brothers. The recreation of this album is basically a re-reading of the same material in its entirety which plays perfectly. The original album wasn't the hit machines typical record it was more a tribute to their father and they put their status as pop idols on the line with this album. It's not the same level when it comes to gambling but this album is way out there for the pairing. The combination of their voices doesn’t have the seamless intimacy of the Everly's, but the male-female dynamic animates the lyrics, adding sexual tension to songs of romantic conflict and a quality of universal embrace to songs of familial love. Band arrangements fill out the Everlys’ acoustic spaces while retaining a starkness reminiscent of Rick Rubin’s late Johnny Cash productions.

Don's basically Billy Joe and Phil's replaced by Jones and the album is astoundingly perfect in every possible way. The duo sound as if they'd been singing together for years and rival some of the greatest duo's on record. The album's standout track is "Silver Haired Daddy Of Mine" and it is completely flawless eclipsing the original in every way. Not only does Billy Joe sound comfortable on this platter he sounds confident and delivers every line with honesty as if he wrote the songs himself. On "Who's Gonna Show Your Pretty Little Feet?" the two sound eerily like the Everly Brothers themselves. It is shocking to be quite honest and I have to admit I have to listen to this song a lot to truly accept the scope of what happened in the recording booth.  The timbre of their voices on the track "Put My Little Shoes Away" is ridiculously good. The pure harmonic textures that are created are so glorious that if heaven was a real place this would be it's entrance theme.

As far as I'm concerned this album is an absolute masterpiece and one of those records that has to find a place in your collection. There are some great albums that have been released this year but none of them compare to oddness and brevity of this one. The awesome west-coast swing of "Oh So Many Years" has got to be played at every single partner dance from this day forward. The music shows how good it was back in the day and it stands up in 2013 to any country or rock record written since the turn of the millennium. I recommend no, I demand you listen to this album, love this album and make everyone around you understand that this is something special that doesn't happen very often and probably won't happen again for a very long time.