Day 318: Heavenly – Le Jardin de Heavenly

12 Jan

Starshy

While listening to Black Flag last Dad Rock Tuesday, one song on Damaged stood out in particular.  I recognized “Police Story” almost immediately, but I couldn’t remember why.  Then, about halfway through, I realized that Los Campesinos! covered it on The International Tweexcore Underground, an early EP of theirs that now appears to embarrass them.  On that EP, in addition to the Black Flag song, is another cover of some band called Heavenly.  I still listen to LC!’s version of “C is the Heavenly Option” to this day, and have discovered that it is in fact  better than the original version.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy Le Jardin de Heavenly, but the Campesino gender-reversal in their cover of the song is just too funny and endearing.  Also, Calvin Johnson’s guest spot on the real thing is kind of annoying.

Fortunately, Johnson and his annoying vocals only make one appearance on this record.  The rest is left to Amelia Fletcher, who has a voice that is hard not to fall in love with.  She’s got a really quiet and soft-spoken delivery, which reminds me of Alaina Moore (of Tennis) just a bit.  The low-key vocals leave the instrumentation out in the open, which is okay because it does manage to fend for itself.  The quick tempos and trebly guitars should work against the oft-slow vocals, but somehow, everything blends together beautifully.

While “C is the Heavenly Option” ended up being the worst track on this record, I can’t hate it because the cover version is what led me to Le Jardin in the first place.  Fortunately, I’ve got a lot more to check out by these guys

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