— Johnny Black
I was recently browsing in a store and I began to notice that I was gently humming along with the song that was playing. I knew the tune but couldn't quite place it. I even seemed to know the words yet I still wasn't sure where I had heard it before. Yet, heard it I had since it was a song I'd written about for this blog.
Eventually I figured out that it was "No More 'I Love You's'". (The chorus sort of gave it away) But it wasn't the original by The Lover Speaks, nor the much more well known cover version by Annie Lennox from her 1995 album of covers Madusa. Actually, I still don't know who it was I was listening to but I'm quite sure I'll recognize it if I ever happen to come across it again: there can't be any other artists who'd choose to leave out its distinctive "do-be-do-be-do-do-do, ah".
The challenge of recording a strong cover is how to keep what makes it a song great while adding something to it. There's lots that can be done with "No More 'I Love You's'" but choosing not to bother with the bit that everyone remembers isn't the way to go. I would consider removing or re-writing the refrain in favour of nixing the do-be-do-be-do's. (Actress Hailee Steinfeld did an overhauled version with much of the lyrics changed but she was wise enough to know what needed to be kept around)
A look on the YouTube comments for Spectral Display's "It Takes a Muscle to Fall in Love" indicates that a lot of the kids listening to it now are coming to it more familiar with M.I.A.'s cover from 2010. The last time I wrote about this Dutch synth-pop classic, I referred to her version as "feeble" but I didn't go into why it missed the mark so badly, perhaps because I found it so objectionable that I wasn't about to put myself through the task of having to listen to it a second time.
I just about managed to give it that second play this time round though — and not much has changed over the last five years. While the original has, in the words of reviewer Johnny Black, "the sparest of electronic, Euro reggae rhythms", M.I.A. makes it far too Jamaican while sidestepping it's clear links with Yazoo's gorgeous 1982 hit single "Only You". And this is where her version fails: the stark melancholy just doesn't enter the picture. You'd think with lyrics like "you're gonna live tomorrow if you don't die today" she might have toned down her bouncy vocal or maybe encouraged her producer to come up with
Otherwise, "It Takes a Muscle to Fall in Love" in the hands of Spectral Display is as brilliant as ever. It's one of those hauntingly lovely songs that I can never quite get right as it plays in my head; I awkwardly hum its melody, mess up the lyrics and fail to quite nail the voice I imagine Henri Overduin has (for some reason I keep thinking he sounds vaguely like Paul Young). I'm so much more used to preferring the way songs sound in my head to the actual recording that it's refreshing to have the opposite occur.
Some say cover versions are supposed to be better than the originals but how often does this ever happen? Carbon copies, needless to say, are pointless.What's left is to take a great song and add something to it in order to make a new version worthwhile. Or mess the whole thing up which only leads to appreciating the original even more. Well done, M.I.A.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Kissing the Pink: "The Last Film"
It's an unjust world that the passable "The Last Film" managed to fluke its way into the UK Top 20 when "It Takes a Muscle..." couldn't even get a sniff at the bottom end of the hit parade. I suppose I'd like it a bit more had it lost out on the Single of the Fortnight to something I'm far less willing to fight over. Nevertheless, "The Last Film" is original and engaging and, indeed, "definitely desirable", I just desire Spectral Display that much more. Still, I have to wonder how M.I.A. would've screwed this one up.
(Click here to see my original review)
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