Another Form of Relief

Apparently this song is almost two years old, proving once again that I’m on the cutting edge of new music. Cajun Dance Party are one of those bands that I knew existed, but didn’t pay much attention to. The name doesn’t really help them in this regard, as I was half expecting some kind of dance outfit. What I actually found was five alarmingly young people playing frantic rock music. Which was something of a pleasant surprise. The Next Untouchable seems to have originated from recent, successful UK bands like The Libertines, but it’s littered with more than enough musical flourishes to raise it above being a mere rehash.

Are there any better ways to start a week than with some covers? Well, probably there are, yes, but it’s still pretty damn good.

MP3 Colin Meloy – Charlie (expired) (Shirley Collins)
Apparently Shirley Collins had a big impact on folk music, particularly in the UK, but I’m afraid that I hadn’t heard of her before getting hold of this Colin Meloy cover. She obviously holds a great deal of importance to Meloy as he released an entire album of him covering her songs. ‘Charlie’ is the kind of song that sounds instantly familiar, even if you’ve never heard the song before. It just has a kind of catchiness to it that makes it easily recognised. All upbeat, jangly guitars and words that are straight out of the 60s, and yet it all suits Meloy’s style perfectly. Now I’m not the world’s biggest Decemberists fan, mostly because I haven’t really explored them beyond Picaresque rather than an actual dislike. I like Meloy’s delivery an awful lot in everything I hear yet I rarely seem to explore more. Kind of strange, but no matter. This is the kind of deep insight you get when I have no idea what the original version of a song sounds like.

MP3 Graham Coxon – Time For Heroes (expired) (The Libertines)
I don’t like The Libertines much. I do however think that ‘Time For Heroes’ is a far better song than they deserved to create, and one of the best of recent years from a British band. There’s something not quite right about Graham Coxon covering it, and it’s hard to describe why. It’s the kind of angry song that needs to be sung by someone aggressive. It doesn’t have to be someone who particularly sounds it, but there needs to be an element where you think the singer will randomly snap and start beating the people he’s taking aim at with the words. That, or I’m overthinking this way too much. My point though is that Pete Doherty has that element, and Graham Coxon doesn’t. He’s far too weedly observing guy in the background than the one making a stand. Nonetheless, he gives this a good go, all loud guitars and crashing drums while soaked in distortion, and while not entirely convincing, it’s still pretty good. I also like to hear covers of modern songs I’m already familiar with, so it gains extra points for that too.
Edit: Thanks to Iain Baker over at XFM, I’ve now learnt that this was recorded live for a Jo Whiley session on Radio 1, which probably explains some of the roughness to the sound.

MP3 Gary Jules – Mad World (expired) (Tears For Fears)
Yes, I, like nearly every other person in the world, first heard the Gary Jules version of ‘Mad World’ while watching Donnie Darko. I know some people take issue with music being discovered in this manner, I’m a big fan of it, and have found a lot of great music simply by watching films with good soundtracks. This song was also the Christmas number one in the UK in 2003. Quite how it ended up doing so well is still slightly baffling to me, as when I was telling people how great it was back then and how it should get to number one, I was generally mocked, and didn’t think it had much of a chance myself. Somehow it did it though, despite it’s none too cheerful nature. Gary Jules turns the song into a slow burning, haunting piano song that isn’t quite as depressing as it should be.

I’m tired and want to crawl into bed and continue reading the best book I’ve read in a while. Before that though, it’s time for another batch of randomly selected cover song awesomness!

MP3 Beck – Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometimes (expired) (The Korgis)
One of the best things about Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind was how damn good the soundtrack was. It says a lot about how well the music worked with the film that I can’t listen to this song without seeing the title sequence where it was playing in my head. I’m going to be honest and say that I’m not familiar with the original of this song, but I just wanted to include it as it’s so damn good.

MP3 The Shins – We Will Become Silhouettes (expired) (The Postal Service)
For their ‘Such Great Heights’ EP, The Postal Service had the inspired idea of inviting both The Shins and Iron & Wine to cover them. This may have been a lazy ploy to avoid coming up with new material, but it doesn’t really matter when the results are so good. Everyone is familiar with the Iron & Wine ‘Such Great Heights’ cover, but this excellent version of ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ is often overlooked. It’s another great reworking, turning TPS’ end of the world ditty into cheerful acoustic fare.

MP3 The White Stripes – Jolene (expired) (Dolly Parton)
There seems to be a consensus that the Live Under Blackpool Lights version of this song is the superior one, even to the point that it was the one released as a single. I like this studio version a lot more though. I’m not entirely sure why, I just think it sounds much better. Could I be any less helpful in supporting my views? Probably not. Anyways, the White Stripes manage to turn this into an excellent little blues rock song, gender roles be damned.

MP3 Adam Green – What A Waster (expired) (The Libertines)
This one doesn’t really work anywhere near as well as the original (which was flawed itself), but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. It’s incredibly foul mouthed, something made far more noticable by the crisp vocal track that Green has over a simple acoustic guitar. The style of the song does somehow suit him, but it’s far from perfect. ‘What A Waster’ needs to be sung by the kind of dodgy guy that you’d run into a kebab shop on a saturday night who would kick the shit out of you in a second if you looked at him the wrong way. Which is why it seems to work so perfectly for Pete Doherty I guess.

I’m going to go to bed now. I got sent a couple of awesome Scottish bands earlier on today. Scotland’s music scene seems damn good at the moment. Granted it’s not quite Canada or Sweden, but it’s putting out some excellent material. Anyways, I might feature one or both of them tomorrow. Of course now I’ve mentioned it I’ll probably end up posting something else, but we’ll see.