Insincere apologies for another music post so soon after the last one but it's Sunday, I'm technically on holiday, and although I have some other ideas, they'd all be too much trouble. I'm feeling lazy. Also, I fancy some sounds.
Enough excuses. Let's do this.
So, of the three music posts I have semi-planned, two are about New York and require both research and actual writing. The third is just more covers so that's the one we're having. I have no regrets about that. Cover versions were almost where music started on this blog and if there are features here then they're one.
I ought to codify all this stuff. I'll get right on that, when I next have nothing better to do.
Baby's On Fire - Groupie (Original by Eno)
This one could have gone in one of those New York posts but I have more by the
same band that can do for those, if I need them. There are a surprising
number of covers of this particular Eno tune. You wouldn't imagine it
would be that well-known. Maybe it's easy to play. The best by far is
this one
by Nightmare and the Cat, which I've featured before. I bought an album
by them, purely on the strength of it, although I rather wish I hadn't.
I did consider a post of nothing but babies on fire but I know no-one's really
going to sit through eight or nine versions of the same song, which is why I'm
going to make a playlist for my YouTube channel instead. They'll watch
anything over there.
Eno's been in the news a lot of late. My news, that is. He has a new album out, a collab with Fred Again. I've listened to some of it. It's ambient Eno with vocals but unfortunately not his. I wish he'd sing more. In the unfathomable way of the modern world, you can listen to it all for free if you want. It's on Fred Again's YT channel. I don't pretend to understand how the economics of all that play out. Maybe it's because they're genuine artists. Maybe they're just too rich to care.
Private Idaho - Groupie (Original
by the B52s)
Oh, look! It's Groupie again! Different line-up but then it was five years ago. Is it me or do all B52's songs sound almost exactly the same? I'm not complaining. It's a great sound and no-one else can really do it right so I can't blame them for knocking them out one after another.
As B52's covers go, this is sprightly. They're too often leaden. The drummer
really needs to be in a Talking Heads tribute band with a voice like
that, though. He's a dead ringer for David Byrne, even if he looks more
like a slimmed-down Eugene out of
the Rezillos.
Black Hole Sun - King Princess (Original by Soundgarden)
For one whole half second I thought of putting some kind of post together to nod at the Recent Royal Event. I typed "King" into the search field in my music archive but the results were problematic. Not sure I want to re-visit my King Khan years.
Grunge was a musical trend I didn't much appreciate when it was around. Mrs
Bhagpuss had more time for it than I did although I think it was the
anti-fashion fashion she liked more than the music. Some of the tunes have
aged better than I'd have expected all the same, especially when they're
cleaned up and de-grungified, like this.
This Is How It Feels - The New Pornographers (Original by Inspiral Carpets)
Madchester. The Second Summer of Love. Baggy. Acid House. Another trend - or set of trends - I wasn't a hundred per cent sold on at the time. I think you'd have needed to be taking more drugs and different drugs than I was to have felt the full impact.
It's not a musical moment particularly remembered for its wistfulness but
there was some, as this plaintive unpicking of the
Inspiral Carpets' more forceful performance makes clear. Looking
back, there was a good deal more gloom and introspection in there than all
those smiley badges would have had you believe, I think.
Cardigan - Lana del Rey AI (Original
by Taylor Swift)
Oh, now you did it! You just had to go there, didn't you?
Well, yes I did. I find this whole leakthrough from an alternate reality
absolutely fascinating. If certain cosmologists are correct in their
theories, every one of these imaginary recording sessions has happened/is
happening/will happen, so it's not just possible, it's inevitable. We're
seeing reality here. Or hearing it.
I've listened to a bunch of AI versions of "Lana" doing other peoples' songs and they vary in inauthenticity quite a bit. This one is perhaps the most convincing I've heard. It has her intonation down pretty much perfectly. If it hadn't been tagged AI, I wouldn't have questioned it for a moment.
It's not just the tone and the timbre of her voice, though; it's the way it gets her phrasing that's really shocking. Lana has always had a playful, unpredictable way with line breaks and enjambement and here's the AI, breaking up Taylor Swift's steadier pacing to give the whole thing a riskier, more fragile edge. Of course, it helps that Cardigan is one of Taylor's most Lanaesque compositions, from her most Lanaesque album, but still. It's remarkable.
The one real signal that something's not quite right is that odd, interstellar buzzing at the end of some of the held notes. It sounds like interference on the line. I like it, though. If it's unintended, then it's felicitous.
God Only Knows - The Beatles AI (Original
by The Beach Boys)
This, though...
It's been getting a lot of attention. I first saw it reported by NME, who made the point that God Only Knows was "previously hailed by Paul McCartney as being his favourite song of all time." What Paul thinks of this conglomeration hasn't yet been reported. Maybe he likes it. Liam Gallagher apparently loves the entire "lost Oasis album" which was created by a real band writing the songs and laying down the backing tracks, then having an AI dub "Liam's" vocals over the result.
When the Beat Boys' God Only Knows started up, I thought it did sound eerily like The Beatles doing The Beach Boys (In a manner of speaking...). It seemed as though I could pick out Paul's voice on lead and the arrangement felt solidly Sgt. Pepper era George Martin.
As the track went on, though, I found it was becoming more and more Beach Boys and less and less Beatles. By the time most of the instrumentation drops out towards the end and all that's left are the harmonies, I wouldn't have had a clue who was supposed to be singing. It could be a bunch of session singers working on a track for one of those Top Twenty albums they used to sell in newsagents back in the seventies.
I'm not sure if that's a criticism of the "cover" itself or the AI.
More that those sixties stylings have become so generic in and of themselves
they all may just as well be AIs now. I'd have to say that most 1960s pop
songs don't sound very real to me any more, which offers an insight both into
my state of mind and the metaphysical nature of reality rather than making any
point about quality of the songs themselves.
Paris Texas - Grimes AI (Original
by Lana del Rey)
Now it's getting interesting. So, this was made with the new Grimes-authorized, anyone can use it, AI toolset Elf.Tech. The YouTube creator who made it, BumbleBeePixie, calls it " the "AI" cover that no one asked for" and apologizes because "It's not that well polished and some bits could be sang better." A commenter agrees, saying "Also it’s sung out of tune".
I don't know. I thought it was pretty good, albeit maybe not for the right reasons. I don't know Grimes' voice or style nearly well enough to judge how much or how little it sounds like her. I do, however, know exactly what Princess Chelsea sounds like, having listened to her magnificent album "The Loneliest Girl" dozens of times and what she sounds like is this.
Sound familiar? Is it a complete co-incidence or does Grimes always sound like Princess Chelsea? I guess I'm going to have to listen to some Grimes to find out... Okay, well, maybe she does a little, around the edges, but not really so you'd notice if you weren't looking for it.
It must be in the combo. I guess Grimes + Lana = Princess Chelsea? There's an equation I wouldn't have solved without AI. So it does have a use!
And that's enough for now. This post sure went in a direction I wasn't intending. Also, I now have the URL of a website where you can make your own AI covers for free so I have better things to do with my Sunday evening than sit here typing.
I'd best get on with it before The Man wakes up and stops all our fun.
Posts
The "Beatles Cover" of God Only Knows is missing one very important point: the polish. There's the basics of a Sgt. Peppers/Magical Mystery Tour Beatles song there, but there's a distinct lack of polish to the song that the band and George Martin would never have let get released into the wild. If nothing else, it's a starting point, but I'd also argue that The Beatles would have likely done something different than try to create a Penny Lane version of God Only Knows. I think that's the problem that AI has: that spark of inspiration, creating something truly new and original, isn't really there. AI can mimic and it can provide a high amount of precision if you are detailed enough in the specifications, but part of the creative process is creating something truly original. AI can examine the history of art, but it can't necessarily predict the future. (At least not yet.) It doesn't have that spark that Van Gogh had when he went off the rails and began creating new works that people had never seen before.
ReplyDeleteRight now, the best that AI can do is mimic in the same fashion that all of those copycat bands that appear once a few bands forge ahead in creating a new genre of music.
The whole idea of AIs creating original work is an entirely different concept. I don't know if anyone's working on something that's going to try and write actual songs with lyrics. I'd love to see it but so far the AI music creators I've tried are quite bland, just producing instrumental noodling in various styles.
DeleteThe point of the curent crop of musical AIs seems to be to have your favorite artist a) produce more material than the actual artist can or wants to put out (Something all fans want.) or b) work in styles or with material that artist wouldn't normally record. It's very much a toy and a pretty amusing one, I think. It reminds me of the mash-up fad of a decade or two ago.
The Lana/Taylor track I linked, though, is so good I've lisrtened to it four or five times just for the pleasure of hearing it. I have a whole post to write about the value of supposed authenticity, something that, ironically, dogged Lana's early career to a ridiculous degree. Suffice it to say I feel - and have long felt - that the arguments over both "authenticity" and "originality" are metaphysical and psychological, not objective or practical. If you can't tell whether something is authentic without provenance, where's the authenticity?