These two tunes have been banging around for a while on the ‘to-do list’ in my mind.
‘Blessed’ comes off the Sounds of Silence LP from Simon & Garfunkel in their prime. It’s an LP worthy of all of our ears, heart and mind – one of those albums everyone needs to experience at least once (because it usually leads to dozens).
Their album version strikes chords similar to that 60s psychedelic Byrds-vibe and yet, in concert, they would strip it back down to a single acoustic guitar with voices only (nearly extinguishing all that was appealing about the original – in my opinion).
This Daydream Cathedral tribute ventures into a more modern direction sonically than the original – Meaning, it’s slathered in the expected shoegaze-heavy effects and obnoxious amounts of reverb. . . as it should be.
‘Cupid Come’ on the other hand is an often over-looked and under-shared tune from My Bloody Valentines’ Isn’t Anything LP. There’s something about the original version with Kevin’s dry vocal (no effects) and unusually clean guitar tone (in standard tuning none-the-less) that still captures that warpy slithering winding approach the band later became known for.
My version keeps what was great about the original (Colm’s drums are nearly verbatim / the bass is not modified too much / Kev and Bilinda’s guitar parts are only slightly updated). The main, and most noticeable difference is the approach I took to reproducing the vocals as a two-part harmony throughout (blending a lower register to Kevin’s to disquise that ‘off tune’ sound that isn’t everyone’s cup of coffee. . . )
Hopefully these little tributes will help bring in some new fans to Simon & Garfunkel and MBV who may have trouble ‘enjoying’ the older stuff. The original versions admittedly do sound raw compared to today’s modern-rock-loudness-war-sonic-masterpieces.
Ho hum.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the music.
– Shawn
** The EP comes bundled with 3 previously released covers of OMD, Depeche Mode, and Tears for Fears. **
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