One aspect about music that always seems to amaze me is cover songs. It’s usually always either hit or miss with me, as far as cover songs are concerned. They either turn out excellent and have potential to surpass the originals or just plain disastrous. In the case of Serena Ryder and The Beauties, their cover of The Funeral by Band of Horses, hit me right in the face (in a good way, of course). While the fetching vocals of Ben Bridwell (lead singer of the Band of Horses) are impossible to replace, Serena Ryder and The Beauties land pretty close to perfection on the giant scale of cover song critique. Listening to this version of the song, almost causes me to forget that it exists in another form, it’s just that good. The lyrics may not belong to Ms. Ryder, but she has taken a song that was beautiful to begin with, and made it her own. I’m not sure if in the long run, this version will top the original completely, but what I do know is that right now it’s the only version I’ve been listening to. Serena Ryder, of course, hails from the great plains of Canada. Where have all of these Canadian musicians been all of my life?
You can download Serena Ryder’s version of ‘The Funeral’ here.
Ryder and the Beauties are set to release a music video for their rendition of The Funeral in the near future. Preview it here! Ryder is currently on tour with Howie Day in support of her album ‘Is It Ok.’
I’m coming up only to show you down for
I’m coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow
Before they died, had trees to hang their hope
Serena Ryder’s Myspace
Band Of Horses’ Myspace
Preview Serena Ryder and The Beauties music video for The Funeral
On a more personal note, must it REALLY be snowing today?
– the wolf & the snoring sheep
pick apart the past 