Keidra touched on Saul Williams and Trent Reznor working together on a CD and the fact that there's a cover of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on it.
Normally, I wouldn't really care too much about this CD, but the cover of U2's iconic song (well, one of many iconic songs) made me curious. Thankfully (or not) Saul's got a Myspace page with the song on it, so I could take a listen.
It's not the worst U2 cover I've ever heard -- I'm lookin' at you Pras for defiling "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- but it's not the best. It's got Trent's stamp all over it and really, it doesn't work at all. This sounds like a bizzare reggaetron/nu metal cover band got their hooks into the U2 catalog.
Trent's known for the industrial/metal sound, which is supposed to be machine-like, antiseptic and cold in a way. U2 isn't exactly known for those adjectives. OK. They're not. Period. U2 is as industrial and goth as a basketfull of puppies on a warm sunny spring day -- which is to say not at all. U2 wears their feelings on their sleeve. They have no poker face.
Sunday Bloody Sunday is about expressed anger and rage. It's the loud, angry yell that we all do sometimes. It's not antiseptic, cold or machine-like. It's why when I hear Saul saying "How long can we sing this song?" I don't believe him. I feel like he could give up singing in a few minutes. Bono (especially the Red Rocks version) makes me feel like he could sing it forever until he gets what he wants.
It also helps that Edge's guitar has the jangly, striking notes that when backed by Larry's military snare punctuates the words. It's got that precise, angry tone that the song needs. In this case, less is more. The spareness of the song punctuates the whole point of it.
With Saul's version, it feels like the whole point of the song is lost under all the eletronica. Which is disappointing.
I don't blame Saul for wanting to take on the icon and give it a new spin. There's plenty of people who have done that. Britney Spears took on "Satisfaction" and Marilyn Manson took on "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)." In my mind, none of those people were able to take on the original. The originals are so big, so well known in our collective knowledge that it's impossible to overtake. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is one of those songs and really, Saul should've left it alone.
1 comment:
Good review. I wanted to hear your thoughts from the U2 fans' perspective.
As a NIN/SW fan it's still a disappointment. Saul's spoken word has a lot of passion, and Trent can, when he wants, convey a similar amount of passion in his work. (I don't really think "industrial" when I think NIN because it's so often emotional. Lots of hard-core industrial fans don't like the band for that reason) For me, I don't coldness from Saul's performance of the song as much as the production, which is standard late 90's NIN. It just seems like a bunch of holdovers from Trent's Fragile sessions. That was 8 years ago.
But Saul on this song sounds nothing like himself. Check out Scared Money (the track after that on the MySpace) for a more accurate representation of Saul's sound.
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