So, let's talk about covering songs from different genres, again. Although Pat Boone's "Smoke on the Water" was complete and utter cringe, and Richard Cheese's "Guerilla Radio" may just be one of the worst songs I've ever heard in my life, Pseudo Echo's cover of "Funkytown" may be the most depressing case of this. You see, Richard Cheese is not taking himself seriously, but even then, he's covering songs that a lot of people actually know, like "Closer". "Closer" is not a song that was huge on the Hot 100, peaking at number 41, but many people actually know the song, even if just for the crazy music video. Pat Boone did a cover album of hard rock and heavy metal songs that lot's of people knew like "Holy Diver" and "Enter Sandman". Pseudo Echo did a cover of a one-hit wonder, and this was their only hit, there has got to be some irony in that.
Now, the original "Funkytown" is one of my favourite songs of all time, I love how cheery it is and the robotic voice at the end is just so cool. So, what is Pseudo Echo's plan to cover it? Throw in some disco elements? Nope, make it a dated synth pop track, but that is not the biggest problem with the song, after all Johnny Cash took the industrial rock song "Hurt" and turned into a gothic country song, and made it amazing, so anything works.
So, how does this song start? With an electric guitar riff, granted it's not a bad one, but it doesn't fit the song. The song is about going somewhere that will "Keep me moving/ keep me grooving with some energy." When I hear an electric guitar riff, I don't think shake your hips, move your legs; I think bang your god damn head. but hey, maybe the song will get better.
Or it will just become "Funkytown" almost randomly. The only way this song even transitions into "Funkytown" is by snare drum, and granted this was before "St. Anger", but even in the 80's it should have been known that loud snare drums are not a good idea. The opening instrumentals mix poorly, the synth is dominant, as it should be, but I feel as though the guitar was just kind of pasted in because "We need to make this a rock song!", the snare drum is also there, reminds me a lot of "The Look" actually, which I mean, there are worse things to be compared to.
Although I can't say the frontman Brian Canham is a terrible singer, "Funkytown" is not the song for him. The song itself even is not a fit for "Funkytown", because I believe that "Funkytown" should actually be you know, funky. This song is not funky, it's the equivalent of making a somber and depressing folk song and energized and hardcore Pop Metal song, you're missing the point of the song and why the song works.
Even if you don't like the original, you can at least admit that there is appeal, and yes there is appeal here, but not a whole lot. I don't like this song as a fan of rock music, 80's music or even pop music.
The vibe I'm getting from this song is Boyband, and not a good one like The Jackson Five or The Beatles, I mean one like One Direction.
I won't bother going into the lyrics because "Funkytown" is not a song that prides itself on it's lyrics. However, I will say that when you completely throw the point of a song out the window, especially when the point of the song is practically built into the song itself, you probably should change the lyrics.
I get that a song can be covered in different styles every now and again, Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah" for a good example, or hell even Aurelio Voltaire's "Hallelujah", both of those are different styles from the Leonard Cohen original, but they still match the tone. "Hallelujah" is not a happy song, and "Funkytown" is not a head banging song. You have to match either tone, point or style to make a good cover, or barring that you should make a cover that redoes the song and puts a different spin on it, like what Nirvana did with "The Man Who Sold the World", just as long as the different spin works.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I hope this is the last awful cover I talk about.
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