While stopping at a local Starbucks just this past Valentine's Day for a much needed caffeine induced kick in the ass, I noticed this love song compilation sitting by the cash register. Figuring it would be nothing more than your typical run-of-the-mill Norah Jones/whoever's hot in the coffeehouse world type of comp, I didn't pay it much attention until the track listing of artists I saw on the back caught my eye. M. Ward, Neko Case, and Calexico all on a Starbucks compilation of love song covers? Surely you can't be serious? Well I am serious, and don't call me Shirley.

So I bit the bullet, bought the album and brought it home, and I have to admit, I'm pretty pleased with my purchase. As I'd mentioned before, M. Ward is on here, and he does a good job of bringing his lo-fi creeping to Pete Townshend's 80's staple "Let My Love Open The Door." Neko Case also does a decent job with Bob Dylan's "Buckets Of Rain" off his highly underrated Oh Mercy album. Rufus Wainwright gets the loving started with a rousing version of Rogers & Hart's "My Funny Valentine," and Madeleine Peyroux resurrects the ghost of Ella Fitzgerald on her version of Lillian Green's "Give Your Mama One Smile." The crowd pleasing doesn't end there though. Gary Jules, known for his mind-blowing interpretation of Tears For Fears "Mad World," tops himself here with an equally great version of Cat Stevens' "How Can I Tell You." Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips, formerly of the now defunct Luna, also do an excellent cover of the Dennis NOT Brian Wilson composed "Forever" off the Beach Boys criminally underrated Sunflower album.

Except for Joseph Arthur's cringingly bad cover of The Smiths "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out," most of Sweetheart 2005 is pretty good. There are two covers here though that for my money stand out above the rest, mostly because I never would have expected these two artists to have had it in them to cover tunes so out of their range and have them be so jaw droppingly good. One is Norwegian phenom Sondre Lerche reaching way back to cover one of Chet Baker's few vocal tunes in "The More I See You." Lerche's vocal arrangements here are gorgeous and more restrained than you'll see on his two previous albums. The biggest shocker though belongs to the Tex-Mex Americana stylings of Calexico covering Joy Division's black as night staple "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Calexico rework Joy Division's classic into something completely their own, and with cover songs, there's nothing harder than getting out of the original artists shadow. Calexico's version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is almost unrecognizable until the chorus, and because of this, its all the better. Now that Valentine's Day is behind us, I'm not too sure how tough this disc is to get a hold of. But if you enjoy any of the artists listed above, or just a nice batch of cover songs, it's certainly worth seeking out.