Idolator
"Somewhere along the line, the three-minute pop song fell out of favor with young rockers, who instead favor proggy pretensions and Radiohead-style pomposity. The result is often an ambitious sprawl of 'movements' and 'passages' that seems impressive on the surface but rarely strikes the listener in the heart. Nightmare of You, on the other hand, has landed a bull's-eye." A bull's-eye, you say? Yes, Newsday columnist Rafer Guzman thinks Nightmare Of You's cover of Cheap Trick's "On Top Of The World," available on the band's MySpace page, is the bee's knees. The Ultragrrrl fave "completely overhauls the arrangement in favor of a rich, supermelodic style that's part Britpop, part Broadway. Any smart crate-digger could have discovered this nugget, but Nightmare polishes it into pure gold." Cheap Trick made "supermelodic?" No way!
Yes way!
The updated version kicks off with Ryan Heil's big, propulsive bass line - a 13-second mini-melody all on its own - then adds the chiming British guitars that have become a Nightmare hallmark. The chorus comes immediately, sung by multiple voices with adolescent breathiness. Beautiful! The chords are bittersweet rather than raw, giving the song an added emotional depth. Brandon Reilly's vocals - passionate, nasty and heartbroken all at once - have never sounded so convincing. (Amazingly, the whole thing was recorded in one day in Seattle during a tour.) Add in Sammy Siegler's Beatlesque drums and a crisp guitar solo from Joe McCaffrey and you've got the kind of pop masterpiece they just don't make anymore.
I may not have much room to talk when it comes to waxing poetic about cover songs, so I'll just ask that someone explain to me how any of this accurately describes the track in question, starting with "Beatlesque drumming."
Nightmare Of You's Myspace Page
Nightmare Of You revives Cheap Trick single [Newsday]
(Note: Guzman's column was published in January, but for some reason appeared in my RSS feed last night. Newsday, intentionally or not, has made this cover "news to me"!)
Comments
After what this band did to the Flaming Lips' "Waitin' for a Superman," we should all have reason to doubt. I checked this out, and I'm still trying to understand how any critic could be so rhapsodic about what amounts to a rote cover.
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Where's the "Broadway" and beyond that, where are these fabled "Beatleesque" drums? Sounds like standard 4/4 to me.
[blog.newsok.com]
@GeorgeLang: Ultragrrl is dating the singer. So much for objectivity.
And, yeah, it sorta sucks.
hmm. Sounds pretty cool to me.
other than the fact that this song is cloying and cookie cutter, the main problem with the review is the phrase "adolescent breathiness." creepy.
and what in hell is a mini-melody anyway? oh and that guitar solo sucked deeply too.
I want to apologize ahead of time to Ultragrrrl and Newsday -- for my complete failure to ingest copious amounts of pharmaceuticals before listening to this; if I had, I might better understand what they were on about. It isn't bad, it just isn't anything that spectacular.
@GeorgeLang: where are these fabled "Beatleesque" drums? Sounds like standard 4/4 to me.
Hey, Ringo practically invented 4/4!
Wow, they sure sucked all the life out of that one.
Isn't power pop supposed to rock???
As a huge Cheap Trick fan, I have to say... it's OK. They kind of drained it of all the power of the original making it over as MODERN-ate ROCK. Which makes Guzman's rave all the more wrong. But I think more Cheap Trick covers in general are a good thing. The Methadones did a good job on "He's A Whore", and I think I have a Decemberists Trick cover on my iPod somewhere that was pretty decent ("Southern Girls"?).
@EAGLEBAUER: I'll take Enuff Z'Nuff over this any day.
File under: If It Ain't Broke, Etc.
@tigerpop: You wise person.
I proposed to my wife during "If You Want My Love" at a Cheap Trick concert. I was cool once.
Chiming British guitars? Be still my Irish heart!
What kind of indie-band refuses friend requests from other bands on Myspace?
Way to go dudes! I've always wondered what it would sound like if Xander were a whiny turd with a $90 haircut.
i didnt put this out, i just put out. totally different
if it takes a "smart crate-digger" to find a copy of heaven tonight then i must be a fucking genius!
@Lucas Jensen: I proposed to my wife during "If You Want My Love" at a Cheap Trick concert.
"...I SAID, I WANT TO MARRY YOU!"
I just listened to it...I think it's lame...the original rips it to shreds...the columnist in question reviewing this wouldn't know Ringo Starr drumming if it came and bit them in their ass...
All the balls of the original is gone...
Sorry...this cover is lame...
Go...walk...no RUN...and buy yerself a copy of "Heaven Tonight" and see what they don't make anymore...
They don't make good rock n' roll anymore if this is what is considered great rock 'n' roll...
Forgetable garbage....trash would have been more accurate except they are covering a good song...
Sorry for the rant...all of this IMO of course!
@Lucas Jensen: I know a couple who used "Voices" as the first-dance music at their wedding reception. Excellent choice.
Rick Neilsen should punch all of them in their collective balls.
And still heavyweight champions of the world...Cheap Trick!
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