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LIFE & DEATH (AND ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE) collects 29 tracks by the country artists. Features two never-before-released songs. Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan have been compared to "Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood...on acid," a comparison that has been stickered to the front of the Omni Recording Corporation's 2005 compilation Life and Death (And Almost Everything Else). It's not an inaccurate comparison per se, but it kind of ignores the fact that Nancy & Lee already sounded like they were on acid, particularly on such hazy, narcotic fantasias as "Some Velvet Morning." Jack & Misty sound like they're on acid, but only according to kitsch fanatics who've never tripped and have only drowned themselves in pop culture ephemera: it's like a parody of the '60s of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, kind of like an Austin Powers movie. It's an oddity, and it's sometimes funny, but it's also silly and trying, wearing out its welcome long before its 29 tracks finish. Contrary to the impression given from the song titles -- "The Legendary Chicken Fairy," "If Eggs Had Legs," "I'm Washin' Harry Down the Sink," etc. -- this music doesn't feel intentionally humorous, yet it also doesn't quite feel formed; songs bear a germ of an interesting idea, but not much more. So, this winds up being music that camp cultists force themselves to embrace, as it has the appearance of being everything they love, yet they'll find that this is the kind of forgotten pop oddity better to read or hear about than to actually hear. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
