Allegories, a project of Hamilton, Ontario’s electronic mavens Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell, thrives on innovation and enigmatic personal presentation. The group has been active for over a decade now, but they have not ventured into covers before. For a debut cover they have done a deep dive into Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life,” immersing themselves in both the sound and visuals of the song.
The song was one of the first public indications that Mark Hollis of the band felt that he was in a gilded cage in the pop world. Their record label felt that they were part of the New Romantic wave, pairing them up with the architects of some Duran Duran’s successes, clearly hoping for more of the same. The core of the band, Hollis, bassist Paul Webb and Lee Harris, were less comfortable with that. Press and touring were not their favourite parts of the job. The challenge with that stance, on one level, was their potential mastery of the pop genre. They could have done it, if they had the right level of desire. No Doubt’s cover of this song, which retains many of the original elements, is one of the most popular of the 21st Century.
In the original, we are presented with a fluid fretless bass line that anchors and drives the apparent upbeat major key narrative, ably supported with Harris’ drums. It has an unconventional chord progression, which indulges some of the band’s desires to make their appreciation of avant-garde artists such as Debussy and John Coltrane, but disguises it in a more palatable package, at a very danceable pace. Hollis’ lyrics, though, tell another story. He feels trapped “caught in a crowd”, and his heartfelt vocals indicate that he desires artistic freedom. Within a few years the journey of the band away from the mainstream off towards left-field had produced one album, Spirit of Eden, now regarded as a masterpiece. Whatever it is, no one calls it “pop,” certainly not the session musicians who were part of an 11-month program to record the music in the pitch dark, using only analog instruments and tools available in 1967. Neither phase of the band’s musical journey generated the hits that their record label hoped for, despite their artistic achievements, and the band is now revered.
Allegories does not use only analog instruments. Their version is as dense as the original, maintaining the pace but cloaking in a more minor-key sensibility, without the dominating bass line. They are proud to be ploughing their own furrow, and spotlight their independence from the crowd by emphasizing that phrase several times in the outro. They have recognised their own path, and are reconciled with that. They recognise that their approach comes with difficulties, and that they are unlikely to top any charts with their messages, but they seem comfortable with that outcome.
