gloomy june’s latest cover of Metric’s infamous Black Sheep is a loyal rendition of a much-loved classic, served with a healthy splash of their alternate personality, giving the song a welcome shake-up.
The San Francesco-based band are fresh off their summer tour, covering 10 states, and are already at the heels of their east coast tour. Staying busy, this release must have been a quick freshener of sorts. The original was released in 2010, made famous by Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, one of the band’s favorite films, it’s sung about the shy introvert at the pool party. A peculiar situation that might have dabs of fun and excitement but will have a bitter tinge of sadness. This was captured in the original’s driving synth leads and Emily Haines’s stellar vocal delivery. She always acts out her lyrics in an amazing way. gloomy june’s cover stays true to the original colors of the Metric hit, but elegantly replaces the electronica-heavy sound with one that’s more guitar-focused, with layers of melodies on top of one another as they build a solid wall of sound. The drums are more driven and feature more prominently in the forefront of the mix, which is probably where the largest divergence lies between the cover and the original. A highlight is definitely the singing. Haines’s high-reaching vocals must have been a tough one to reproduce, but the band finds absolutely no trouble in recreating the passionate delivery, giving it a healthy spin as to fit the more rocking atmospheres.
A class act, this cover was seemingly birthed during a short break between tours, can’t have been easy, but must have also been great fun. We love the real song, released more than a decade ago, and we’re so happy with the neat spin gloomy June has spun on it.
