Recently, we heard Cali-based surf pop band Best Coast‘s take on “Rhiannon,” my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, and the result was amazing, a California surf-pop tune whose straightforward handclaps-and-piano rhythm is highly addictive. It hails from a Hear Music & Concord Music Group Fleetwood Mac tribute album called Just Tell Me That You Want Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac, and the album is a star-studded affair that should prove interesting — although I’m quite dismayed by the paucity of covers from Rumours and Fleetwood Mac, the group’s two best albums, in my opinion.
Fortunately, a few artists besides Best Coast chose to cover Rumours tracks, and one of them was the Alison Mosshart-led (of The Dead Weather) indie/alt-rock outfit The Kills. Their interpretation of “Dreams,” a heartrending break-up song that many people know and love, manages to remake the song’s entire image by giving a tense, sinister psyche that alters the meaning of the words through its mindset alone. ”When the rain washes you clean, you’ll know,” for example, sounds less like a baptism and more like a threat. This girl’s heartbeat really has driven her mad.
Previously: “Pots and Pans,” “Baby Says,” “Satellite (Live on Conan),” “One Silver Dollar (Marilyn Monroe cover),” our Blood Pressures review, the Top 100 Songs of 2011
-Jordy Kasko
Stream: The Kills – “Dreams (Fleetwood Mac cover)”
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