My loyal readers will no doubt recall that I hate the New Pornographers. No matter how many people tell me I'll love them, I have always hated them and probably always will. Imagine my surprise, then, when I realized that one of my favorite songs off of the great "Dark Was The Night" compilation album was by them! It's a great, bright, catchy poppy tune with some dark undertones, and I listened to it over and over before I realized that it also sounded really familiar.
The reason was, of course, that it's a cover of a Destroyer song off of his album "This Night" which came out in 2002. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about a band covering one of it's members' solo songs. I guess there's nothing wrong with it, and I'm sure it actually happens all the time, but I felt a little cheated to learn that it wasn't really a New Pornographers song that had finally won me over. But yet it was - I actually like their version better than Bejar's solo version. It's brighter, shinier, more produced (which in this case helps), and is really much more of an anthemic power pop song as opposed to a rock-out ballad.
And of course, both feature the brilliant line "when the company goes public/you've got to learn to love what you own." I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds deep to me.
You can hear them both here and decide for yourself. What do you think?
Hey, Snow White
3 comments:
That is a great compilation! Sleepless is really fine on that album as well... Yeah I'd think you'd like the New Pornographers culturally, even if not musically.. =)
-nate
Oddly, I love New Pornographers, but am not a fan of Bejar's solo stuff at all.
But bands covering individual members solo stuff is pretty common among bands that have side projects. I'm a big Cowboy Mouth fan, and half of their albums are songs from band members solo albums. BNL does the same. I think a few bands (like Genesis) make a point of NOT playing solo stuff, but I suspect that's more the exception.
In a NP related side note, the new Neko Case album is phenomenal.
And Nate, you're wrong... Jordan hates anything Canadian on principle (unless that's softened in the last few decades...)
there's a song or two by new pornographers that i like. the laws of changed is ok, but mostly for the last minute or so.
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