The Drums, the pop band from Brooklyn, recently covered Arcade Fire’ s ‘We used to wait’ during a concert.
The result gives a new wave feeling to the song: whereas the song by Arcade fire exploded in a furious and big sound during the ‘wooo, we used to wait’ with that tenacious keyboard beat during the whole song, the Drums minimize the explosion and made the song shorter; hey 2:55 instead of 5:01, that’s a big difference! It’s like they were in a hurry to cover the song, and it’s definitively sped up and a little messed up with more hoping and bouncing, just like a Cure song.
Gone that special persistent keyboard beat, their version is more guitar oriented, gone also the dignified and solemn tone of Arcade Fire, the Drums version is more careless, muddier, and there is some weird vocal effect when Jonathan Pierce pronounces ‘can laaaast’. May be it’s their admiration for some British bands like the Smiths, Joy Division and The Zombies that makes them take this strange accent.
I just have the feeling that Win Butler will not appreciate this cover, I mean, I could be totally wrong! Anyway, he should, because a cover is always a nice recognition.