Happiness

I have a weakness for [song] covers. Some of you already know that. But in this Age of the Remake (“Fox News, I hold a copyright on that term!”), where everything you can think of – from Smurfs to Lite-Brite – is being resurrected in some form or another, I don’t choose my favorite covers casually. We’re talking weird, new, and creative takes on the original. Devo has nailed it in an almost canonistic way heard in their versions of “Satisfaction (I Can’t Get No)”, “Working in a Coalmine” and “Experienced”. With similar sensibilities, Ben Folds Five give a Tito-Puente-esque nod to the Flaming Lips with their version of “She Don’t Use Jelly”, the Pet Shop Boys proved the Village People’s “Go West” wasn’t just a dance anthem for 1977 and even the Postal Service cover of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds” is certainly worth honorable mention.

And I could go on forever about remixes. I have yet to meet any of the !K7 Records DJ-Kicks efforts that I haven’t liked. Same goes for Hippocamp, particularly when they “ruined” the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. (I have to say I’m surprised to see this back up.) People tend to have mixed feelings about artists remixing their own work, condemning it with what seems to be increasing disdain the further away the remix is from the original release date. But what about The Cure’s Mixed Up? Isn’t it arguably one of their best albums? And much of the DJ-Kicks stuff is mixed by the original artist(s) and frankly, it's wonderful. What’s that adage about the writer who is never satisfied with his own work??

Anyway, Music for Robots posted one of the most beautifully recorded covers I’ve heard in a long time. It’s a practical rebirth of Elliott Smith’s “Happiness”, from a West Coast hip-hop duo, Lifesavas. Maybe I’m jazzed about this cover because “Happiness” is already one of my favorite Elliott Smith tunes. Maybe it’s because it sounds an awful lot like Diggable Planets with a hint of Boyz II Men (circa 1991) in the chorus. Or maybe it’s that sweet, jazzy, almost-the-makings-of-muzak piano. All that said it gets me the way all great artistic works do, be they original or not.