k-punk said:Most irritating trend in covers:
Indie rocking it up ---- most heinous e.g. of this I can think of atm is The Futureheads' student lager roughing up of Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' --- maybe it was Age of Chance who started this idiot trend --- in any case the idea that trampling all over non-rock subtlety with distortion pedals and amps turned up to 11 is the very height of crass cliche ---
Not sure I agree entirely - I liked the Futurehead version, even if it is analogous to the Chapman brothers Goya defacing and a similarly cheap shot (is it not possible to like shots, even if they are cheap?) - because it reminds us that the words, music etc are not in themselves sacred but are rather tools and elements that have been manipulated rather well.
So Marilyn Manson's Tainted Love can be isolated as an example of the constituent elements being manipulated in such a ridiculous way that is not only fails to make a commentary on the original Northern Soul elements but also on the subsequent cover versions - this is a crime in a whole different league to the playful iconoclasm of The Futureheads...
Agree with you about Nick Cave though; he has become a cover version of himself; a kindly uncle slipping on the baseball mitt for one last pitch... (though again, the pleasure for me has not diminished; this Nick Cave I like for different reasons entirely to the other Nick Caves...)