Daft Title

I used to hate covers... Cover songs that is. I’ll probably save that topic for a whole other essay, but I was thinking about that today as I listened to several versions of “Bizarre Love Triangle”. See, I often say that the record that made me love covers was Mandy Moore’s 2003 record Coverage, and that might be true; but the song that endeared me most to covers was a little Australian band’s cover of the song that I obsessed over in high school.

Frente’s version of “Bizarre Love Triangle” made me do a double take the first time I heard it because it was so, well, so different. They took an electro-pop masterpiece and scaled it back to nothing but an acoustic guitar and a stark, completely naked, one take vocal that still brings me to near tears.

Last year one of my favorite bands covered it and it became my favorite version, but you know what, I think Taylor Swift could cover the song and I would think it was one greatest things ever; because it is a perfect song and anyone who sings it with any amount of conviction is going connect with a listener.

Today at work I was listening to the original New Order version and it really hit me how good this song was. See, liking a great pop song is like getting a big crush. You get so caught up in the feeling of the moment you don’t even quite realize how good (or bad) it is until later. Today when I was listening to this song my brain about and heart about exploded as I connected the dots about emotions this song stirs up at certain times in my life. It just might be the ultimate crush song.

“Every time I think of you I feel a shot right through with a bolt of blue... living a life I can’t leave behind.” Wow. There are so many good lyrics it’s hard to even cherry pick the best ones out, but the real reason this song is so great because of the storytelling devices. I’m not sure the listener ever knows the point of view of the singer. Are they the one crushing, the one being crushed, or a third party to the ensuing emotion.

I think this is why Angie Hart’s vocal on the Frente version is so crushing (no pun intended). You feel little bit stark when dealing with the topics this song offers up. “I do admit to myself/That if I hurt someone else/ Then I'll never see just what we're meant to be” is not the kinda lyric you sing lightly.

The South version is my favorite, not just because they are one of favorite bands, but because they deconstruct the song a different way entirely. They shake the “ultimate crush” theme down to it’s grade school roots by incorporating music boxes and xylophones... which gives the song an even more bittersweet, if not pseudo-innocent, resonance.

It’s safe to say the New Order crafted the perfect song with “Bizarre Love Triangle”. A song about love, regret, new love, and the excitement of uncertainty, but uncertainty nonetheless. The questions are painted there on the wall, now make you choice, but choose carefully; because as this song proved to me today you can listen to a song thousand times and not really hear it until the thousand and first time you play it. Maybe people are the same way.