Georgie James

“Need Yor Needs“
from the album Places
2007
iTunes

Georgie James is a duo — specifically, the pairing of John Davis and Laura Burheim. Like the Turtles, they are so happy together, or at least it sounds so. Each of the 12 tunes here draws from the peak pop music of yesteryear, when cheerful songs like the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” were the rage and lyrics like “La-la-la-la-lalalala-dadada” (which appear here on the song “Look Me Up”) were just as relevant as “the answer is blowin’ in the wind.” Highlights of Places include “Cheap Champagne,” in which frenetic Wurlitzer and piano melodies bop along behind Burheim’s sweet-and-straightforward singing (reminiscent of Belinda Carlisle, back in her giddy Go-Go’s heyday), the ’80s pop-meets-’70s-bubblegum groove of “Need Your Needs,“ and the bright-eyed, falsetto folk of “Hard Feelings.”