Pop? Rock? Alt? Indie? Call it what you will (genres are so 90’s anyway) but there are elements of all of those woven into this track, which is a neat trick if you can do it, and The Undecideds can! It is infectiously pop, grooves with a slightly harder rock edge, jangles with indie-pop sweetness yet it sits slightly left of the mainstream, not as dark or aloof as your average alt-rockers, less self-aggrandising than most indie bands. In short, this song is actually effortlessly cool because it isn’t trying to be…which is the only way to be, coolness is something that only others can bestow on you.
Chloe’s lead vocals are great, hypnotically spiralling, making it wonderfully sing-along-able (that’s a word, right?) Dexter’s guitars are spacious and tasteful and the rhythm section spounds unfussy and on point. Everything serves the song and the song is all the better for this lack of ego.
Okay, confession time. I didn’t know this was a cover until I read through the blurb, assuming that, like all great modern songs, it just felt like a long lost classic as soon as you hear it. It turns out it is a long lost classic. I’m unaware of The Plimsouls, who did this originally, my 80’s were spent a long way from LA and it’s the alternative scene… I was probably watching Echo and The Bunnymen in a muddy field in the UK’s West Country whilst wearing a Coal Not Dole t-shirt!
But if nothing else, it shows that The Undecideds have great taste in choosing what songs to cover, that they do a great job at the task at hand and that now they have a sonic benchmark to aim for. So no pressure, but I’m really looking forward to what they do next.
[…] I have seen my fair share of sonic assassinations by bands who don’t get it. Thankfully, The Undecideds, siblings Chloe and Dexter, do get it and their rendition is a fairly faithful one, after all, why […]