My Bloody Valentine’s “When You Sleep” is a beautiful, shimmering example of shoegaze. Heavy on distorted guitars, co-ed vocals, and just generally sweeping beauty, it is a lovely little pop song that so many shoegaze bands of today try to emulate without success. It’s probably smart, then, that Memoryhouse didn’t try to imitate it when they covered it for Yours Truly. Instead, they adapted it to their own style, consistent with gems of theirs like “Lately” and “Minor White.” It takes the heavily distorted guitar riff from the original and turns it into a beautiful piano ballad.
Memoryhouse also slow down the tempo considerably. The guitar still makes an entrance, but serves as the rhythm section while Denise Nouvion’s dreamy vocals float perfectly on top. Its dreamy, hazy feel may be in line with the original, but not much else is, and that’s just fine. Check out the video below.
Edit 10/15: MP3 download added below.
Check out more from Memoryhouse at their tumblr.
Pretty good. I like this version by Anamanaguchi better:
http://8bc.org/music/Anamanaguchi/When+You+Sleep/