A couple of months back, good ol' what's-his-name noted that Sarah Jaffe's latest, The Way Sound Leaves a Room, featured her take on Cold War Kids' "Louder Than Ever." And it's a very nice take at that, as you can hear for yourself below courtesy the button below that'll launch the MySpace music player (no, seriously). Anyway.
Reason I mention it two months later is: Andy Langer, Esquire's Austin-based music critic, includes Jaffe's cover on his year-ending list of "The Best Songs You Probably Didn't Hear This Year," alongside Beck's "Stormbringer," Girls's "Vomit," Lloyd's "Dedication to My Ex (Miss That)" featuring Andre 3000 and Lil Wayne, and Andrew Bird's "Hospital." Writes Langer:
In this year of the thousand Adele covers, the instant-tribute trend is growing trite fast. But occasionally -- by completely reimagining tempo, tenor and ambiance -- we get something revelatory, a cover that forever changes the way you hear the original.Oh, right -- the original. Gimme the cover.