mp3: lavender diamond – new ways of living
mp3: destroyer – new ways of living …. [buy]
mp3: destroyer – new ways of living [notorious lightning version] …. [buy]

i’m usually fairly critical of destroyer covers… so far, dan appears to be inimitable… that remains the case with lavender diamond’s cover of “new ways of living”, but it may be the best destroyer cover i’ve heard so far. lavender diamond can’t match the frenetic energy of the destroyer/frog eyes notorious lightning and other works ep version, or the lush orchestration of the your blues original (though she tries and, to be fair, comes pretty close)… but those la la’s sure do sound good coming from a female voice.

the cover comes from score! 20 years of merge records: the covers! , which probably isn’t worthy of it’s double exclamation pointed title, but is a pretty good covers collection none the less. other notable tracks include bill callahan’s cover of “santa maria” originally by versus, the mountain goats’ cover of “drug life” originally by east river pipe and the shins’ cover of “plenty is never enough” originally by tenement halls. pick it up from merge, proceeds go to charity.

Related posts:

1. cover of the week – foam hands
2. cover of the week – hey, snow white
3. cover of the week – jailhouse rock
4. cover of the week – destroyer vs. the new pornographers
5. cover of the week — chosen one