The Everly Brothers - A Date With The Everly Brothers (1960), 2/10

The Everly Brothers sound like a poorly executed parody of rock and roll on A Date With The Everly Brothers, their fourth studio album shows no signs of maturity but perhaps regression. The only moment the duo rises to brush against mediocrity is their ballad “Love Hurts”, which would be covered several times since its release, that uses a combination of melancholy and sweet melody to create a decent song amidst the painful humdrum surrounding it on either side. Particularly songs like “Sigh, Cry, Almost Die”, “So How Come (No One Loves Me)”, and “A Change of Heart” are so painfully dull yet actively create discordant tones with no regard for composition, the record quickly becomes an exercise of endurance rather than entertainment. The first two tracks “Made to Love” and “That’s Just Too Much”, while nothing extraordinary, set up a decent introduction before things quickly devolve into a bastardization of rock and roll and some tracks that genuinely sound like they could have been written by a focus group without musical knowledge and performed by a high school rock band. Thankfully the brothers had stronger efforts before and since, making this a weak point even for a generally lackluster duo acclaimed for their use of close harmony. This style, along with their simple subject matter, was unfortunately overutilized by many, making their sound dreary and ineffectual.