Covers Four, formally and sub titled I Know That We Are Not New (a line taken from the contained cover of Cohen’s Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye) is Will Saunders from The Lowest Fidelity’s take on a collection of obscure tracks, which ironically were new to me.

It’s the mode now to take on, often poorly, the latest hits of the Billboard charts, posting them to YouTube in the vain hope of riding off the coattails of the song’s fame. Every now and then you find a polished gem, a diamond in the rough. For the most part you get the rough.

These aren’t those covers.

I’ve never been one to try covers myself. Not properly. Manufacturing a tribute to how someone else said they felt gives me no catharsis. It doesn’t extricate the pain society and my introversion force me to bottle.

Will shows us how a covers are meant to be done. It’s doesn’t have to be about a note-for-note carbon copy. You can take a song and make it your own. And that is what Saunders has done. The results are something weird and wonderful in a distinctly Will Saunders way.

Covers can be hard to review for me, considering my method of going into a review blind and letting the music speak for itself. I didn’t have a reference, since I’m not the kind of Kiwi to listen to Shona Laing, nor the type of Nihilist to enjoy Leonard Cohen.

I listened to the originals, for the review, but the only point in doing that would be to compare, so you can say things like Will manages to harness the chaos of Eight Miles High, and capture the noisy dissonant ruckus that was one of the Byrd’s more esoteric and controversial hits. It’s true, but that neglects the musicianship of Saunders, whose unique sound and voice I’ve always enjoyed.

Bloody Hammer was my favourite track, as the style sits closer to my personal spectrum of taste. Will’s take is somewhere between the Roky Erickson original, and the Songs for the Deaf era Queens of the Stone Age rendition. Not too heavy, not too light. Just because I never knew the original, I’d almost go as far as to say I prefer Will’s take.

I suppose it’s kind of like if you only knew the American versions of Skins, or Shameless and tried to go back to the British originals. They’re similar but you prefer your original. Will Saunders is my original, and he’s pulled off another great album.

_{Review written by Peter-James Dries}

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• 10
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