random: (Saint Random of Chaos)
Random ([personal profile] random) wrote in [community profile] audiophilia2009-05-09 11:56 am

Here's two more...

OK, this is fun - I've got two to toss in to the mix, both in various ways responses to earlier posts.

First off, my attitude towards PJ Harvey is pretty much the same as [personal profile] bliumchik's towards Jawbreaker - she's a clever and innovative songwriter, and I wish I didn't find most of her work so grating. So, I'll start with a cover of Down By The Water, by Lou Rhodes (of Lamb), and Sheila Chandra. It's ripped from the audio of a live BBC concert, and was one of the closing tracks of what was otherwise a fairly traditional folk music concert. I find it fascinating as both a musical and a vocal interpretation. Musically it's surprisingly faithful to the original, and yet the shift to almost entirely organic instruments gives it a very different feel. Vocally, Sheila Chandra's whispered and overtoned backups blow me away, but also Rhodes' version roots it really deeply in the tradition of British murder ballads, which is ultimately what the song is.


And for a second one, [personal profile] stormy's cover of Possession reminded me of Sarah McLachlan's version of XTC's Dear God, which is for me the one existent piece of music that has somehow drifted over from the alternate universe where McLachlan followed up on the edgier and angrier elements of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Solace, instead of moving towards the much poppier sound of her more recent albums.

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