In 1989, after years of over-produced, glossy, crappy contemporary pop albums, Dolly hit big with her return to her country roots in the Ricky Skaggs-produced White Limozeen. What inspired this bluegrass cover, I wouldn't know, but there's something energetically charming about it. Though surely not everyone's cup of tea, I think it's pretty good for what it is—and it's certainly light years better than that crunchy, off-key cover of "Keep on Lovin' You" the Donnas subjected us to in the Melissa Joan Hart / Adrien Grenier "classic" Drive Me Crazy.
So, what started as a what should've been a simple endeavor to discover the artist of this Spanish-language track (which I found via my favorite P2P program) became an ultimately worthwhile (I think) hours-long task. Seeing it initially credited both in the filename and on Covers Project to Raras Tocatas Pencas, I knew immediately this wasn't an artist name but rather a description of it as a cover song. Well, duh, I knew that much already. Long story short, I found out that Raras Tocatas Pencas is a live show on a Chilean radio station, on which popular, presumably Chilean groups with names like Glup! and Kornfleik play cover songs as well as original hits. The show credits this track to "Marylin Suazo," which I can only presume is a pseudonym used by one of the many regularly featured performers since I can't find any other information on him/her/it. But you know what? That's good enough for me and it should be for you as well. I swear, I should be paid for this kind of dedicated research.
Had you asked me a mere three days ago "Hey, Liza, what's your favorite quirky new-wave Belgian art-pop band of the '80s?" I'd have answered, of course, Plastic Bertrand and subjected you to one of the many covers of "Ca Plane Pour Moi" on my hard drive. But now I'm a little older and wiser than I was 72 hours back, and I'm pleased to announce a regime shift. That's right, I'm ending the tyranny of the self-proclaimed king of the Divan. Polyphonic Size's simple, singular, languorous (or, as I prefer to call it, langlorious) synthtastic gem, the Mother's Little Helper EP, has converted me into a believer. This cover is stark and odd and je l'aime beaucoup. I'm also newly intrigued by their 1982 Strangler-produced (as in J.J. Burnel) debut album Live for Each Moment [aka Vivre Pour Chaque Instant], which is fast becoming my favorite soothing-but-not-sleep-inducing "I'm gonna sit around and read books and magazines" album ever.
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