On Tim, "Swinging Party" follows closely on the heels of the meanest song Paul Westerberg ever wrote, "Waitress in the Sky." It's a strange song, and it took me a long time to learn how to appreciate it. I just never felt that it deserved a place on an album with "Little Mascara" or "Left of the Dial." But I've learned that "Swinging Party" is as subtle as "Bastards of Young" is brutish and direct. The band locks into a lounge groove and lets Westerberg come to grips with his sense of lostness. The song is an emotional gut punch in the same way as "Here Comes a Regular."Kindess' cover of "Swinging Party" reimagines the song as a flat, bass-heavy dance number. Amazingly, the flat vocals retain the humor of the song ("Bring your own lampshade/Somewhere there's a party"). But even more amazing is the fact that the pathos of the original is transformed in the cover. Westerberg sounds impassioned about his quarter-life drift ("Water all around/Never learn how swim now"), but in Kindness' cover, the lyrics actually mimic the sense of loss. Our singer sounds like he couldn't care less if he actually found a partner to share his misery with. Westerberg, though, was clearly desperate for a shoulder to lean on.
You can pick up Kindness' "Swinging Party" 7'' here.
No comments:
Post a Comment