It’s an
average pre-work Sunday morning. My Mum, for God knows what reason, has already
decided to start ironing and the household cat, despite my consistent offerings
of affection, still hates me. The first thing my Sunday self actually hears is
the theme song to ‘Frazier’, insinuating the end of yet another repeated
episode.
After
routinely switching on ‘Sunday Brunch’ and forcing my eyes to endure a
15-minute onslaught of Howard Webb’s ridiculously bald… sorry I mean Simon
Rimmer’s, ridiculously bald head, the dreaded ad break came – an ad break that
would be more dreadful than usual however, for one reason. ‘Birdy, the voice
that brought you Skinny Love, back with her new album’ went the voice over lady
as a snippet of Birdy’s rendition of Bon Ivers ‘Skinny Love’ opens her new
albums advertisement. Now a lot of you are likely thinking, ‘who the hell is
Birdy anyway?’ and to be honest you’d be right to think that – a prime reason I
believe that her promotional team decided to open the advert for her brand new
album, featuring brand new material, with a segment of a cover she did over two
years ago. The reason? Simply because it is the only thing anyone really knows
her for…unless you are some die-hard fan.
When
Arctic Monkeys however recently released a TV advert for their new album AM, it
didn’t open with an overpaid voice over lady saying, ‘Arctic Monkeys, the band
that brought you I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor’, and why would
it? No artist or band whatsoever should draw on hit songs they have had in the
past, (or in Birdy’s case, one hit cover version) to promote a new album that
features new songs. Why don’t you just focus on promoting the new songs that
make up that new album of yours Birdy? Or do you think they just aren’t good
enough? Sadly though this isn’t the worst of it and it’s not even the main reason
I want to say goodbye to my family and then go jump off a cliff. It’s the shear
fact they acted like it was her own song with no recognition for Bon Iver’s
original masterpiece – quite harsh treatment I think from someone who wouldn’t
even be releasing a second album to millions of people if it wasn’t for the
band in the first place.
They
also continue to constantly play on this because they know there are still millions
of stupid 14 year olds out there who actually think that she is the
writing genius behind the track - and if they can so easily pull the wool over
those peoples eyes to sell records, then why wouldn’t they?
Now even
though all I have done so far is completely slate Birdy, sometimes I do have
moments where I feel sorry for her, because even she must lay awake every night
tormented by the fact that she is a no one without that cover.
 |
| Birdy - will her new album of original's make us forget THAT cover? Doubtful. |
She
isn’t the only one however to entirely copy the recipe of overused ingredients that
you could say makes up every single cover version that features on the John
Lewis Christmas adverts. I know Birdy’s cover was never on one of those adverts,
but it just seems nowadays all you need, to have to a hit with a cover, is one
delicate female voice that occasional cracks (in the ‘good way’ of course), one
piano and one over the top string section that kicks in during the climax of
the last chorus. A climax made so dramatic, it makes the ending of the
Eastenders Christmas episode where that ginger nerd jumps to his death off of
the Queen Vic, look shamefully pathetic in comparison.
These
three things are prominent in nearly every cover version featured on the
adverts. For example, Ellie Golding’s version of Your Song – a version that
once again most people initially thought was in fact ‘Her Song’, and most
notably Gabrielle Aplins rendition of Power Of Love – another one who
definitely wouldn’t be where she is today if is wasn’t for the ‘Power of’ that
cover. I am not denying that a few of these covers aren’t good, and they do
pull on the heartstrings more than I would like to admit, but I just feel they
only cover them to boost their own career with the hope that more people will
be directed to their terrible original material.
Now
then, by this point you may be looking for almost any reason to plummet head
first off a diving board into a pool of flesh thirsty piranhas - if you are, I
may have just found the reason that will finally send you over the edge – yes,
I am about to pick on Birdy again.
Right,
so just when you are about to bottle it, and go running back to your ever so
loving family after convincing yourself that the modern world of music isn’t
THAT bad - whip out your smartphone (I gather you have one). Now, quickly close all your Internet porn
tabs before any one sees and go straight to Youtube. Brace yourself, here comes
the hard bit. After you type in ‘Skinny Love’ into the search bar, you will
unfortunately be greeted with (before you even finish typing) the first
suggestion of ‘Birdy – Skinny Love’ not ‘Bon Iver – Skinny Love’. Sad isn’t it?
It’s even worse that the female singer-songwriters version has over 48 million
Youtube hits and Bon Ivers has a mere 9 million. Oh the wonders of a great
marketing team aye?
Now if
that alone isn’t a reason to give you the confidence to actually make that
jump, I don’t know what is.
George
Henry King
www.twitter.com/georgehenryking
www.twitter.com/georgehenryking