What's with the deluge of pop stars and lesser idols covering The XX? What makes the British newbies so irresistibly coverable? Is it that their songs are really easy, like how everyone in my middle school who played guitar learned “Wonderwall” by Oasis first? If it's something else that points to the emotional power of their songwriting and the ease with which their sonic pallete translates to other musicians, someone out there needs to get to the point, put it on a tray and bring it to us because we completely missed what the herd seems to be feasting on.
Latest out of the box is the “Gorillaz” cover of “Crystalised“, makin' Damon Albarn so emo:
Then there was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's take on “VCR”:
OMD – VCR (rough mix) by 100% Records
Then there was also The Antler's take on “VCR”:
The Antlers, “VCR” (The XX Cover)
El Perro del Mar…
jj tackles “Intro”:
Forget Gorillaz, and all of this almost fits into the same spectrum of musicians who make variations on supple pop music. It makes sense they'd dig one of the bigger recent “discoveries” of that realm. But in walk Shakira and Tyler fucking Momsen on the same XX track.
Shakira, “Islands” (The XX Cover)
The Pretty Reckless, “Islands/Love the Way You Lie” (Rihanna/Eminem/The XX Cover)
This is ignoring the countless XX covers wallowing in obscurity, nearly impossible to google, remembered only by those who did the covering and the few (un)fortunate souls who caught them in the act… And we are left shrugging. May we refer you to the word eh and the letters W, T, and F.
