Run For Cover is a weekly music column comparing cover songs to the original version. Prepare for a major bending of rules as we hear musicians throw around genres, tempos, style, and intent. Whether they’re picking up another’s song out of respect or boredom, the results have impressed us.
Despite being a melting pot of cultures, races, and beliefs, America never seems capable of whipping up as much world music as it should. Taking note of this back in 2006 was Zach Condon, a Santa Fe native who has a trumpet for a third hand. He formed Beirut as a solo project that year but went on to rope in five more members to flesh out the music’s expansive, warm sound. Their albums do a good job of conveying the music’s fresh breath of life, but live the music illuminates everything around it.
If the chance to see Beirut outdoors appears, take it.
Condon’s awareness of how Balkan folk, baroque, and world music play out allows the music to shake its numerous colors live, a display that would be brazen and overwhelming had the music not been coated in a hazy romanticism that keeps it lush from the start. When placed outside, Beirut’s music becomes the picturesque perfection of a Wes Anderson film. Of course, Condon’s charming self–both sober and drunk–helps a little bit, too.
On the band’s second album, 2007′s The Flying Club Cup, Condon aimed to create pop songs in the style of grandiose, French drama. Along the way he picked up new instruments, including the French horn and euphoniums as opposed to his trumpet or the accordion instead of a ukulele. The result was a record of classical pop songs, including two of the band’s most famous tracks: “Nantes” and ”A Sunday Smile.”
Around this time, violinist and singer-songwriter K Ishibashi was touring the world as a backing member for Regina Spektor and Of Montreal. When he decided to begin writing and recording his own music under the name Kishi Bashi, there was no disputing it was his time to shine. His excellent debut album, 151a, won over NPR’s Bob Boilen, who went on to list Kishi Bashi as his favorite new artist of 2012. He treats his music with a similar passion to that of Beirut, except instead of the swelling of horns, its the swelling of violin — a sound he creates entirely by himself.
To cap it off, he’s the happiest little man you’ll ever see, especially when he’s got his violin in hand.
In February of last year, Kishi Bashi layed down the framework for his cover of Beirut’s “A Sunday Smile.” Instead of looping his violin as he usually would, an act that wows crowds, he broke down his cover to have help from a quartet so he could focus on nailing Condon’s gorgeous vocals. It’s part of his 7″ box set that also includes covers of “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)” by the Talking Heads and “Prologue/Twilight” by E.L.O., a must have for an Kishi Bashi devotee.
The original “A Sunday Smile” and Kishi Bashi’s cover don’t sound drastically different upon first listen, but Ishibashi’s arrangements for the quartet reel the song back from being a summer serenade to being a springtime dusk dance. ”A Sunday Smile” sees its rhythmic line taken over by the strings (whereas its originally played on bass and keys) so Ishibashi can channel Condon’s baritone voice with care. Considering it’s the Beirut song that put Condon on his map, it’s the least he could do.
What makes the cover a considerate thank you is Kishi Bashi’s attention in translating the outro. The last thirty seconds become a flutter of plucked strings, trickling high-pitched taps, and muffled voices discussing the work, all coming together to form a soft kiss blown in Condon’s direction years after the song’s debut.
