To hate washy covers of songs

[powershowerforanhour]

Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" in the Volvo ad
Proclaimers' (I'm Gonna Be) 500 miles -Viagra ad
On the radio- some shit version of Toploader's Dancing in the Moonlight

All sung in a wishy washy breathy pathetic style. Probably by the same person. Who sounds like they could barely blow out a candle.

Born to be Wild is associated with one of the most famous counterculture films ever.
500 miles should be sung near the end of a concert with a horde of drunk fans roaring the "Ba dah bah" line back
Even Dancing in the Moonlight was a nice bouncy summer tune till she got her pallid hands on it.

I'm not against covers- and some slow covers can be decent occasionally- but this stuff has all the power of the tepid urine of an anaemic gnat.

@AftonGlen

Has anyone heard the pathetic cover of New Order's 'Blind Faith'? It is one of the adverts just now, I couldn't tell you who it was for as I was so incensed by the wishy washy singing. Fuck sake!

It’s on an advert for a game and yes it’s bloody hideous.

I too hate these horrible covers. Make them stop!

[quote trappedsincesundaymorn]This makes my ears bleed.

[/quote] Good God, that's horrendous. Couldn't listen past the first couple of chorus lines. What's it called when they overlay the singer's voice on itself 98 times? There's a time and place for it but this wasn't it. But it's so insipid, croaky and dull that I wouldn't have liked it anyway. But, you know, flashy visuals and tormented looking singer staring offscreen, so...deep and meaningful?

I wonder what Kurt Cobain would have thought.

Whitney definitely started the slowing down trend, but at least she also beefed it up and gave it some welly. I lay the blame for insipidation at the door of little remembered Scottish band Travis for taking pop classic Baby One More Time and doing an acoustic cover of it at Glastonbury. Then everyone said "oh wow, this really shows the tune in a different light" which is true but it led directly to fucking Darius attempting the same on Pop Idol and then after that every bugger wants to show off their thoughtful and reflective credentials by singing slowly and pausing a lot.

At least the 80s dodgy covers involved a drum machine and someone in a baseball cap gurning at you so were entertaining, rather than this drippy lot.

In fact, here is my timeline of cover version trends:
50s: big band it up
60: white-ify
70: make it all sound like Slade
80s: drum machine and baseball cap
90s: feedback and loud guitar regardless
00s: acoustic and mournful
10s: easy listening a la breathy Perry Como

Jesus that Nirvana cover is a true horror.

@LinemanForTheCounty

In fact, here is my timeline of cover version trends: 50s: big band it up 60: white-ify 70: make it all sound like Slade 80s: drum machine and baseball cap 90s: feedback and loud guitar regardless 00s: acoustic and mournful 10s: easy listening a la breathy Perry Como

I like this list.

I do not like drippy, breathy cover versions.

Can we add Lily Allen's cover of Somewhere Only We Know? The original is lovely, the only Keane song I have any time for, but the cover makes it sound like a 5 year old girl trying to persuade her friend to come out and play.

@EoinMcLovesCakeJumper yy! In fact, like a GHOST five year old girl persuading her friends to come out and play. She should have ended it by saying "We can be friends forever, and ever, and ..." repeat to fade ... swing swaying in an empty garden at dusk. Somewhere, an owl hoots. Fin

Songbird so much better by Fleetwood Mac

Also hate the pop trailers on BBC costume drama, something the other night but can't remember

You mean using pop tunes for the trailers? I quite like that. Best one I saw was Channel 5 years ago trailing Dances With Wolves, the bit where he's dancing round the fire. They played "I see you baby, shaking that ass."

I like a good cover version that takes a song and gives it a new interpretation. But one of the thing about the breathy cover versions that annoys me so much is that there is so little skill to it. The voices sound breathy and computerised at the same time, and the quite background music could be churned out by a reasonably competent amateur musician with access to a piano and/or a guitar and some basic computer software.

What I would like to know is who are the 2% on this thread that thinks the OP is being unreasonable??

Is it one of the breathy singers come to defend their monstrous renditions of classic tracks? Come out and show yourselves!!

"show off their thoughtful and reflective credentials by singing slowly and pausing a lot"
This is exactly it. The song is so much more highbrow when there are long pauses and whispers.

If I hear it again ....I will tell you what I'm on about😊

That wailing cover of robyns Dancing On My Own sets my teeth on edge.

I’m in the COH ner (Pinter pause)

Watching you KISS heh (even longer Pinter pause)

OH oH Oh

[quote LinemanForTheCounty]@EoinMcLovesCakeJumper yy! In fact, like a GHOST five year old girl persuading her friends to come out and play. She should have ended it by saying "We can be friends forever, and ever, and ..." repeat to fade ... swing swaying in an empty garden at dusk. Somewhere, an owl hoots. Fin[/quote]
🤣
Cut to shot of rocking horse rocking ALL BY ITSELF

The Animals' House of the Rising Sun is on the radio. Ripe for a limp breathy desecration I'd say. Please tell me it hasn't been done.

Classic way to get music cred by taking a jaunty pop tune and slowing it down into a dreary 'authentic' dirge, compounded by John Lewis turning it into the advert trend du jour.

I'm sick of adverts covering songs altogether. Can someone let them know there are other songs except Somebody to Love by Queen? Also ruining various songs by making them tweet kids songs about the pandemic. Ugh.

My husband and I amuse ourselves By singing breathy renditions of songs like “killing in the name of” and similar “sitting on an ... angry chair” was a big fave

@ProseccoBubbleFantasies

Didn't it start with that cover of mad world (I'm thinking donnie darko???) Which is actually brilliant.

But almost everything else done this way just makes me want to ingest my own innards!

I think it started mid-00s with Nouvelle Vague doing an album of covers sung by a woman with a French accent. It was a good album at the time though and their version of Just Can't Get Enough was everywhere. Then everyone started doing it and once it was on the JL adverts, that was it.

This kind of music always makes me picture the singer wearing a flower crown, nightie-style dress and glazed expression.

Cut to shot of rocking horse rocking ALL BY ITSELF

hahaha yes, and bloody Radcliffe giving into view with a guttering candle.

^ .. come on ... Baby ... Light ... My fire .. ^

hoving into view

YANBU. I cringe every time I hear one of these "talking" covers.

Oh my, that Smells Like Teen Spirit cover is just wrong. It's supposed to be powerful not that dreamy crap. And I agree with a PP that The House of the Rising Sun is just waiting to be ruined

Has anyone heard the cover of Sound of Silence by The Disturbed?
I hadn't but, wow, I love it as much as the original! Thanks for posting that Jude