Jon Auer has given us a lot over the years: a long tenure as one-half of the creative team behind the Posies, yielding a dragon's bed of understated pop gems, and an equally promising burgeoning solo career, not to mention time served in the 90's version of Big Star. So when he feels the urge to indulge himself, I'm inclined to let him, especially when such indulgences come in the form of 6½, a collection of unlikely covers selected and performed by Auer to be his post-Posies U.S. debut on his fledgling label, Pattern 25 Records.

Starting out slow and spacy, Auer begins with the track that constitutes the "half" of the title, a nagging and surreal instrumental cover of Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie & Clyde." While there's nothing wrong with the piece, per se-- with a short, looping phrase, it's the only keyboard-driven track on the album-- it's missing the one thing that makes most of the songs on this home-cooked project disc worth hearing: Auer's greatest asset, his lilting vox. Maybe he realized that, assigning it merely half-song status.

But Jon dives into the pop soon enough with nods to influential Brits. The Chameleons' "Tears" is a superb showcase for Auer's dolce vocce but doesn't really improve upon the original. A serviceable cover of Swervedriver's excellent "These Times" follows. And while he does a fair job on each, I couldn't shake the notion that Auer was just warming up. He confirmed my suspicions.

Perhaps the most interesting track on the disc comes next when Auer tackles Ween's vitriolic ballad, "Baby Bitch." Singing with such feeling, and from a source of loss in a personal relationship of his own (the conclusion of a nine-year marriage), Auer takes over the song completely, like a Martian pod. Cello and melodica lend a carefree drift to the track, in direct and stark contrast to the lyrics. Keeping his low-key vibe alive, Auer's take on Hüsker Dü's "Green Eyes" was gentle and lulling enough to put my kid to sleep; likely the first time that's ever happened to a Hüsker song. Singing with unabashed optimism, as well as respect for the original, Auer reincarnates Grant Hart's words and melodies with new life, into a new body.

By the time he reinterprets the Psychedelic Furs' classic, "Love My Way," Auer's ready to plug it in and pick it up. The result is an undercurrent of chugging, muted distortion throughout the song that allows it to take root in a way it wasn't able to the first time around. On top of that, his croon matched with Butler's words is enough to make you second-guess the original. For me, personally, this is the highlight.

Closing the disc, oddly and perfectly is a left-field take on Madonna's "Beautiful Stranger." In the hands of Auer, all the 21st Century Madonnaisms are decanted, leaving only smart melody, direct lyrics, and absolutely no mental images whatsoever of Austin Powers' shag-rug torso gyrating in a come-hitherly fashion.

The nice thing about 6½ is that each person who hears it will find a different standout; there'll be absolutely no consensus. All the covers are presented with an equal level of competence, lending a kind of two-way interactivity to the collection. You will connect with one (or more) of the songs on 6½-- which one is up to you. Since a disc like this would never have a single in the traditional sense, that decision is as personal as the ones Auer made when choosing which of these baker's half-dozen favorites of his to record.

-John Dark