We've Got You Covered: Pale Young Gentlemen and 'Paper Planes'
Pale Young Gentlemen take on M.I.A.
The overexposure of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” was quite startling. It was all over the place, disappeared and then reappeared via the likes of Pineapple Express and Slumdog Millionaire. I was actually happy with the reemergence – because “Paper Planes” gets me to do even the slightest of head bobs with every listen.
The popularity of “Paper Planes” was greatly enhanced by the multiple remixes and covers that started popping up all over the Internet. While some of the covers were quite awful, other (much larger) bands like Built To Spill took on M.I.A. and turned an already amazing song into a new equally amazing song in an entirely different genre.
Then you have the likes of the Pale Young Gentlemen. Pale Young Gentlemen take “Paper Planes” and turn it into a folksy acoustic guitar and violin driven track. It’s really not even close to touching the original, but I will give Pale Young Gentlemen credit for making me understand the song much better. There are at least four parts in the Pale Young Gentlemen version where I said to myself, “Oh, I didn’t know she said that originally.”
Posted by Wes Soltis on May 11, 2009 @ 8:00 am
