Category: Tunes

Tunes

100 best covers: #47 The Decemberists “Human behaviour”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date June 13, 2023
4 Comments on 100 best covers: #47 The Decemberists “Human behaviour”

You can mark this down in the column of cover songs that shouldn’t work on paper but in reality, are quite splendid.

I have written before in these pages about how I discovered Portland, Oregon-based indie folk band, The Decemberists, at some point circa 2004 after reading about them in Under the Radar. I fell hard for them upon first listen and immediately consumed their first two albums in rapid succession. Then, hearing that a third album was still in the works, went on the hunt for anything else I could find, which included a five song EP (called “5 songs”), a close to 20 minute prog-folk interpretation of a Celtic myth (“The Tain”), and then, this, a cover of Björk’s early solo career single, “Human behaviour”.

It was included on a compilation called “Read: Interpreting Björk” that was put together by Portland indie label Hush Records. The idea was floated and most of the recordings happened in 2001 but then they shelved the project because they were worried folks might think they were trying to capitalize on the success of one of their heroes. They ended up releasing it a few years later, after plenty of interest was shown just based on word of mouth. The Decemberists’ cover was one of the late additions to compilation track list and in my own humble opinion, the best of the bunch, though there are some other interesting interpretations worth exploring.

Björk’s original version is actually one of my favourites of her tunes. It appeared at number fourteen on my list of favourite tunes from 1993 and like many of the tunes from “Debut”, it’s an industrial dance party, very “synth, sample, and percussion heavy”. Inspired by wildlife documentaries, Björk explores and exploits the human condition and looks at it from an outsider’s vantage point.

In The Decemberists’ capable hands, it’s a very different sounding beast. Obviously, it’s more organic in feel. With their expansive instrumentation palette, however, they do a great job of replicating the tempo and energy of the original. Of course, Colin Meloy sounds nothing like Björk but he certainly sounds like he’s having fun trying.

Ir’s a great cover of a great tune that only made me love both artists more. Don’t make me choose between them.

Cover:

The original:

For the rest of the 100 best covers list, click here.

Tags 2000s, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, Björk, Compilation, Cover, Covers, Indie, Indie folk, The Decemberists, Tribute album

Tunes

Best tunes of 1993: #10 Chapterhouse “She’s a vision”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date May 27, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 1993: #10 Chapterhouse “She’s a vision”

<< #11 | #9 >>

It’s amazing to think of it now with so many bands waving the shoegaze and dream pop banners, ever since those genres saw a huge revival in the early 2000s, because the original scene only lasted for a brief, but shining period in the early 1990s. All the original shoegaze bands attempted to distance themselves and to move on from their original sound in order to find a place in big music and I can’t think of a single one that truly survived at the time.

Chapterhouse’s debut album, 1991’s “Whirpool”, is seen by many to be one of the great examples of the genre, featuring that outstanding single, “Pearl” which appeared on my favourite tunes list of that year. They returned a couple of years later with a very different, electronic-infused sound on their sophomore album, “Blood music”, which confounded their previous fans and perhaps, many of that time’s record buying public alike. Still, that album’s two singles managed to chart on the UK singles lists, one of which was “She’s a vision”, the focus of today’s post.

“She’s a vision
There’s no one who can tell her what to do
She’s a vixen
And she’s the only one that can break it down”

Like the woman, the object of the affection in the song’s lyrics, the four and half minutes of this track are a reflection of pure pop bliss. The wiry and screaming guitars flay and flail, a rattling and ricocheting drum beat endures without end, inducing a need to jump and scramble. The song is massive and explosive. It’s confettii and lazer beams and frantic and frenetic motion.

I remember catching the band on tour for this album, just on chance because they were opening for The Wonder Stuff on that band’s final North American tour. I was standing right in front. Because, of course, I was. This song hit me like a hammer that night and it never fails to get me going these days, all these years later.

For the rest of the Best tunes of 1993 list, click here.

Tags 1990s, 1993, Alternative, Alternative Rock, Best tunes, British rock, Chapterhouse, Dream Pop, Retro, Shoegaze

Tunes

Best tunes of 2013: #26 Guards “Ready to go”

Post author By jprobichaud
Post date May 17, 2023
2 Comments on Best tunes of 2013: #26 Guards “Ready to go”

<< #27 | #25 >>

Back in 2013, I was into my second year of furiously writing about music on my old blog Music Insanity and I found myself, because of this new hobby, discovering all sorts of new music. Seriously, it was coming from all over the place, from unsolicited emails to reading other blogs, and just plain old-fashioned research. I became even more voracious in my musical appetites*. I felt like I was listening to new bands every other day, some of them stuck, some didn’t, and some were exciting at the time but quickly got lost in the excitement of the next big thing.

Guards and their debut album “In Guards we trust” is a prime example of this last.

I checked out the album when I first heard about it because I’d recognized the name of Guards’ frontman, Richie James Follin, and with a bit of digging, confirmed him as sibling to Madeline, who was one half of Cults. Of course, I had been a big fan of that band’s self-titled debut two years earlier, especially the wall of noise single “Go outside”, and that was enough of a link for me. I was rewarded with a twelve track, forty-seven-minute barrage of stadium ready anthems masquerading as indie pop. And I listened to it again and again and again. It became one of my favourite albums of the year and theirs were one of the sets I was really looking forward to catching at that year’s Osheaga. Perhaps the fact that I missed it due to a conflict might have foreshadowed their fading from the top of my music playlist pile, especially since I can’t recall at all now who it was I saw instead of them.

I had to actually go back and listen to the New York-based trio’s debut album** and its single “Ready to go” when I was putting together this list to make sure it belonged and then, again this week when I was writing this post. Each time I did, the answer was a resounding ,“Yes”! I instantly remembered how great it is, a bundle of revved up energy, retro pop hooks, and fun boy-girl vocal melodies. It’s psychedelic and fuzzy and positively joyous.