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Covers. Renditions of beloved gems in the popular music canon. Covers come in all shapes and sizes. Some exceed their source material in the eyes and ears of the public (Hurt by Johnny Cash versus the OG Nine Inch Nails version). Some are very faithful takes, and some show the original in a new light. Some are absolute dog ass shit from a butt (Disturbed’s take on Simon & Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence, fuck you David Draiman). In the case of Xiu Xiu and their latest endeavour, they happen to find themselves in a mysterious fourth category. It’s a category that falls somewhere between faithful and re-invention. A tightrope that not a lot of artists would be able to walk with as much ease as Xiu Xiu does here. They are not a band known for taking the easy route, this should therefore not be all that surprising.
Hearing the churning industrial synth take on Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’ is all the proof I needed that this was going to be… challenging, to say the least. Not necessarily for me, but for people that may have their own ideas of how these songs should be treated. These are some rock solid classic tracks, they have withstood the test of time. For Xiu Xiu to come along and so audaciously rip them apart, and Frankenstein it back together into an uncanny representation of what it was. To fit it with a mecha-suit of metallic percussion, with edges sharp enough to rip a hole in the fabric of our universe. It’s sort of daunting to listen to. If you sit with it though, you start to get used to the feeling. What ensues is much the same as the intro, and the gratification is well worth the surrender.
Standouts like their even friskier interpretation of Soft Cell’s ‘Sex Dwarf’ are indicative of the band’s ability to stay completely true to both their avant-tendencies, while not letting those get in the way of making the song pop. The squelchy acid-house style synthesisers add a layer of muck to an already grotty mix, it is true filth in music form. The same can be said for their take on GloRilla’s ‘Lick or Sum’. Xiu Xiu make the already sex-forward lyrics feel genuinely perverted. It becomes a sweat-drenched freak anthem akin to something from an early Peaches album. You do have to respect the audacity.
On the flipside, Xiu Xiu reconstruct Daniel Johnston’s somewhat hopeful ‘Some Things Last a Long Time’ and make it into more of a dirge. It has an air of despair about it that reveals a depressing layer to Johnston’s innocent original. Daniel Johnston’s impact on the outsider music world cannot be understated, and it’s fitting that a band like Xiu Xiu is paying homage to him at this stage of their career. It feels like a fitting tribute. This is to say, their reimagining of his song is not a negative to the source material, it is quite the opposite. It posits an alternate read that speaks to a different side of the experience of love and loss.
This is the kind of trip down nostalgia-lane that the alternative music world needed. While Xiu Xiu certainly could have gone gangbusters and pulled out all the massive hits, they decided to keep true to their weirdo roots. It results in a record that is deceptively simple; easier thought of than executed. The cult followings that some of the bands covered here have would have set an expectation level for Xiu Xiu that might have felt impossible. Yet they conquer it like their own personal Everest. For that alone, I have to lend major credit to this undertaking. Though I don’t believe every task here is completed super thoroughly, even in these moments I am still intrigued by their willingness to take certain artistic risks. Xiu Xiu’s latest is bold purely on the merits of its promise, and it functions as a refreshing musical side quest too.
Dan Will Review 