Another Form of Relief

Two covers in a row? Could it be part of some run of covers posts? Well, it’s either that or just the order I happened to open things in my inbox. Go with whichever version suits you more. On the upside, I am at least vaguely familiar with the song being covered today. I don’t actually like it, but it’s something of a step up. Nothing against the original by a singer whose name is either Mia or M.I.A., it just isn’t really my cup of tea. I hear the kids like her though, so once again, odds are they will probably hate this one.

What Pale Young Gentlemen have done is strip the song down entirely to make it sound like something far more laid back. In fact, wrong as it probably is, the first thing that my mind compared it to was something off of a Jack Johnson album. Which is probably deeply insulting. The other point of comparison was Jenny Owen Youngs’ cover of Nelly’s Hot In Here, which is something of an improvement.

I’m not entirely convinced by it all, in so much as it’s nowhere near as good as any of Pale Young Gentlemen’s original recordings. It is however a pleasant little curio, which is perhaps all we can really expect when playing so far outside of one’s genre.

It seems inevitable now that any band that is even the least bit theatrical will be compared to The Decemberists. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Meloy and company are certainly a decent band. I find that my tolerance for elaborately instrumented stories is rather limited. It all sounds very nice and all, but is there really a need to be so over the top?

Which sounds like I’m setting up Pale Young Gentlemen for a fall. There is no way of getting around the fact that their music is theatrical, but they also manage to still sound like a band who isn’t fussed about that fact. The song is still the most important element, racing onwards, with just a hint of desperation in singer Mike Reisenauer’s voice. If a few extra instruments have jumped on board, the band is too busy to have noticed.