What If It Works?

Scott Miller was persuaded by 125 Records to record the album, which was his final work to be released before his death in 2013. Miller had considered releasing it under his own name with Barbeau; however, at the label's request, the album was credited to "The Loud Family and Anton Barbeau," to avoid confusion between Miller and a similarly named country musician.

According to CV Weekly, "Anton Barbeau first crossed paths with Scott during the Game Theory years. At his third Game Theory show, he managed to slip a cassette of his own music to the drummer, who passed it on to Scott. They struck up a lasting friendship when Scott called to praise Anton’s music.... His collaboration with Scott came about rather organically when the pair played together at Sacramento’s True Love Coffeehouse."[2]

Miller and Barbeau divided the songwriting chores evenly on the record, each contributing four original songs, with one co-written song.[2] The album also includes covers of "Rocks Off" by The Rolling Stones, "I Think I See the Light" by Cat Stevens, and "Remember You" by The Zombies.[3]

Previous members of the Loud Family returned for the album, with drummer Jozef Becker and bass player Kenny Kessel playing on most of the tracks, and drummer Gil Ray and keyboard player Alison Faith Levy making a single appearance.

The Sacramento Bee called the album "a mixture of sweet pop and jangly rock," as if "the Beatles were covered by the Replacements."[6]

A review by Jen Grover found the Miller/Barbeau pairing to be "stylistically different yet strangely complementary," pointing to a contrast in "I Think I See the Light" between Miller's "deliciously sexy" vocals and Barbeau's comparatively "grating and nasal" vocals which nonetheless lent "gritty honesty to the arrangement."[7] Miller's "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever," his last to be written for the album, was described as "achingly pretty and dreamingly swirly... its echoey, interlacing guitar and melancholy melody taking it into shoegaze territory."[7]

USA Today described What If It Works? as a "terrific album... by one of underground pop-rock's best-kept secrets, the Loud Family."[8]

• Scott Miller – vocals, guitar, some keyboards, organ, piano, bass guitar, Waldorf MicroWave
• Anton Barbeau – vocals, Hammond organ, Wurlitzer, farfisa, some drums, acoustic piano, Microkorg, bass guitar, Micromoog, tambourine, shaker, Korg MS-10/Roland Space Echo, Arp Odyssey, acoustic and anti-acoustic piano, Navation X-Station
• Kenny Kessel – bass guitar
• Jozef Becker – drums
• Kristine Chambers – backing vocals on "Total Mass Destruction"
• Steve Randall – electric guitar on "Flow Thee Water"
• Dave Middleton – electric guitar on "Flow Thee Water"
• Julie Meyes – farfisa on "Flow Thee Water"
• Alison Faith Levy – piano and backing vocals on "I Think I See The Light"
• Gil Ray – percussion on "I Think I See The Light"
• Larry Tagg – bass guitar on "Don't Bother Me While I'm Living Forever" and "I've Been Craving Lately"