Fontaines D.C. supporting Idles at Brooklyn Steel on May 10th, 2019 (Paul Bachmann / Live4ever)
Fontaines D.C. were long talking about The Beach Boys as a chief inspiration for their second album A Hero’s Death, and now these two worlds of post-punk and surf-pop have been brought together again on InVersions, a new covers album compiled by Deezer.
Fontaines have put their unmistakable twist on Wouldn’t It Be Nice for the collection, while there’s also specially curated covers by the likes of Arlo Parks, Dream Wife and Gus Dapperton. “Covering a Beach Boys song has always been a scary thing considering the genius arrangements, their playing, their harmonies, everything about it,” Fontaines say.
“But it was always something quite intriguing and especially when we thought about it from the point of view of subverting the light-heartedness that they conveyed most of the time. So ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ we saw this kind of naive perspective towards love and marriage in the lyrics, and we were quite curious to see what would happen when you contrasted that approach with a darker musical palette. So we kind of slowed down the tempo and created a draggier tune for those lyrics to sit on top of. What came out of it is something that kind of reminds me a bit of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Rowland S. Howard.”
Have a listen to the full thing at this link.
InVersions tracklist:
Fontaines D.C. – Wouldn’t It Be Nice – The Beach Boys
Arlo Parks – Ta Reine – Angèle
Gussstave – Say So – Doja Cat
Chloe Moriondo – Dreams – Fleetwood Mac
Dream Wife – Dancing on My Own – Robyn
Gus Dapperton – I’m on Fire – Bruce Springsteen
Orla Gartland – Nothing Compares 2 U – Sinéad O’Connor
Ela Minus – Venus as a Boy – Björk
BENEE – Back to Black – Amy Winehouse
Alfie Templeman – Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
