Usually, when a band covers another artist’s songs, they pay tribute to that artist by doing a pretty close copy of it, maybe changing the song structure around a bit to fit the times or a certain style. When I heard that The Dirty Projectors decided to cover Black Flag’s seminal punk album Damaged, I didn’t know what to expect, and I certainly didn’t expect what they put out after I listened to the whole thing. To say that The Dirty Projectors “covered” Black Flag would not do anyone any justice as it is more a reimagining of that album. What does all that mumbo jumbo mean? Take into account that head projector Dave Longstreth reinterpreted and recorded the album from memory, an album full of angry teen-angst ridden songs, and turned them into some of the most beautiful and avant-garde compositions. Then you will sort of understand the method to his madness for creating this project. He makes the songs almost unrecognizable to the originals. Quite an impressive feat for a songwriter with an already eclectic number of albums behind him.
From the albums first track "What I See" to the last song "Untitled" with many highlights in between, there are so many influences being thrown around here like African rhythms, offbeat singing, classical compositions and the kitchen sink to create some of the most uplifting versions of Black Flag songs that sound nothing like Black Flag. Hearing "Depression" and "Six Pack" sung with such upbeat bravado, deconstructed and thrown back together with the sum of someone else’s parts border’s on genius but comes across at times like Longstreth went too far off the deep end, turning an albums worth of seminal punk songs into the score of a David Lynch film. Both intriguing and hard to wrap your mind around, Dave Longstreth makes serious compositions out of indie-rock that are challenging and fun. |