Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Constantines Featuring Feist "Islands in the Stream"

Sometimes a song's popularity or even its own production can mask the fact that it is, when you strip it down to its base elements, actually very well written. Take "Islands in the Stream," the 1983 smash hit performed by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton and penned by the Bee Gees. Today, it's chorus is still as dreamy as ever, but the production is awash in lite-rock blah and, because it was always programmed to be as big as it was, the duet partners belt it to the bleachers, quickly killing the intended sentiment of the lyrics. The song gained a new life, of sorts, when the hook was copped and revised by Mya and put to brilliant use in rapper Pras' 1998 single "Ghetto Supastar (That is What You Are)". Now, however, 25 years after the original, indie rock heroes Constantines have recruited Feist to redo the whole damn thing -- and redo it smashingly. They start from scratch, slow-cooking "Islands" with an intensely personal, hushed arrangement that has just the right amount of soothing, deep bass guitar. Meanwhile, with low-key vocal turns, lady Leslie and the band's lead singer, Steve Lambke, finally realize the beauty and warmth of the words that were always there but overshadowed by the outsized personalities of Rogers and Parton. In fact, listening to this new version, it's almost as if you can hear the sound of perfect love, imagining it being absolute contentment with your significant other that requires nothing more than being together in a hammock on a relaxed spring afternoon. We can rely on each other, uh huh.
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(You can stream the track here.)

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