Digging Into the Covers- Whores/Rabbits Vs the Cure

To some extent you might think I would be the perfect audience for this as my tastes are split almost 50/50 goth(post-punk) to metal, though metal might lead 60 to 40 percent if we got down and tracked my listens.In some ways it makes sense as I have always heard the Swans and Killing Joke influence in Neurosis albums so early goth/postpunk is certainly an influence. Despite coming from a more Amp Rep background Whores  almost come closer to getting the darker elements right, but in both cases the vocals are the draw back.
I can understand these bands not wanting to sacrifice some of the hipster factor back making a more emotive stab at the vocals and attempting a Robert Smith approach, who was a little more dead pan himself in the bands earlier punk days, but it really takes away from the meat of the song.The changes of arrangement was expected going into this, though thought the bass might stick closer to Dempsey's tone. However the sludge treatment in both versions creates more of a sluggish wall of sound than lending such distinctions.

Whores covered the 1979 single "Jumping Someone's Train". The vocals come a little closer as Smith was a less dynamic singer during the early stages of the band's career and went for a simplistic punk attitude. Lembach employs a more Page Hamilton like phrasing to the way the main vocal line over accents the lyrics. They are more narrated and less sung. The lumber and feedback doesn't obscure the song, the doubled vocals on the chorus stray the farthest. There is a very Page Hamilton like phrasing to the way the main vocal line over accents the lyrics. They are more narrated and less sung. I has to go back and listen to the song again because I was surprised they did not go after the drum accents that the Cure using in the final 30 seconds of the original because they seem to lend themselves to a Neurosis like pounding, instead the go into more of a rolling tom fill and stop rather abruptly.


The Rabbits took a swing at "Give Me It" from their 1984 album "the Top". The more Neurosis elements, I could have heard in the Whores' version are delivered, here but Rabbits when full tilt at the song and lost all sense of dynamics, except for the more brooding intro which is the only place the song is allowed to breathe. The coarser vocals serve as a reminder that bands like like all too often make the vocals an after thought, as they seemed to be haphazardly screamed like an Eyehategod song.

If you are a fan of the Melvins and not a fan of the Cure, you have a better chance of liking this.It's not something I really feel that I need taking up space on my iPod, as the originals are already on there. So it's a mixed bag, the Cure is such a revered band that it seems as safe of a choice to cover as if they had picked Joy Division. Though their goth cred would have been more noted if they had chosen Swans or Mission U.k....whens a Fields of the Nephilim sludge cover album coming out ?