Five Good Covers presents five cross-genre reinterpretations of an oft-covered song.
Massive Attack built a swift and sustained reputation right from the word go, as Blue Lines, their 1991 debut, virtually invented the whole trip-hop genre, and remains one of the best selling of that classification. I see Wikipedia describes trip-hop as “a psychedelic fusion of hip-hop and electronica, with slow tempos and an atmospheric sound, often incorporating elements of jazz, soul, funk, reggae, and R&B,” along with samples, often from film and elsewhere. Whilst that seems now a pretty good summation, at the time it was just so astonishingly different. Somehow, the unwieldy mix worked such alchemical magic, drawing together fans of any of those contributing parts, even if they didn’t especially love them all.
Mezzanine was album number 3, with a noticeably darker sound, adding industrial noise and post-punk to the palette. Outselling even Blue Lines, it became and still is their biggest selling release. Largely the baby of Robert Del Naja, it lead to some degree of conflict between he and the other members of the core trio membership of the band, Grant Marshall and Andrew Vowles. This meant Del Napa provided and put together most of the material, with the other two working mainly on the various loops of drum and bass used. Vowles then actually left the partnership shortly after release.
As a song, “Teardrop” was a rare instance, on Mezzanine, where Vowles had provided a track’s impetus, improvising the characteristic harpsichord figure in the studio. Vowles wanted Madonna to sing the lead vocal. She was very up for it, having earlier worked with the band (for “I Want You”). But Marshall and Vowles overruled him. They felt the ethereal tones of Elizabeth Fraser, from Cocteau Twins, would suit better the mood and melody. Fraser duly penned the words, later feeling they summed up her thoughts around her ex Jeff Buckley, despite being unaware his death at the time of writing.
Be that as it may, the combination of her lightweight vocal style and the gentle electronica prove to be unduly effective, explaining why “Teardrop” remains far and away the most covered of Massive Attack’s songs. It came out as Mezzanine‘s second single in April 1998, and reached #10 in the UK chart, still their highest home success, if faring better in other territories, notably Iceland, where it topped their chart. It took the TV series House M.D. using it as its theme song to give it any great traction in the U.S..
Take these five as proof of the pudding, Note: We specifically hunted for true reinterpretations. This means such favorites as Simple Minds, Elbow and Jose Gonzales are absent, being too wholly enshrined within a trip-hop template or just generally too much the same.
Shayna Steele – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Possibly easing you in gently to my remit, this “Teardrop” retains much the vocal ambience of the original; only the arrangement drags it away from facsimile. The opening vibe comes fully from the zone of late night jazz club, as piano and bass delicately tinkle and burble away beneath the singer’s voice. At least, at first. Quite then where the histrionic guitar strays in from, God only knows, but the shock as it does so is intense, waking up the drummer from his reverie, he then clattering around the kit in Muppet-like frenzy. The guitarist having presumably paid for his contribution, he stops fairly abruptly, the drummer a little later, and Steele bids a delicate exit. It is a strange contrast, each part the song of no obvious connect, but it gets the attention it demands.
Steele comes from a background of jazz, Broadway and musicals, primarily, although Beck has used her a couple of times, and Snarky Puppy also. Most recently she provided some of the songs to the recent HBO series The Penguin.
The Kooks – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
This is really quite something. The Kooks, a UK band from Brighton, somehow infused “Teardrop” with a Brit-pop construction, somehow attaching a vague Beatle-y whiff to the arrangement, even if the vocals stray into more operatic territory, in a cadence not entirely unlike David Bowie, once the correct key has been found. The guitar solo and drums throughout couldn’t be more George Harrison and Ringo Starr, the bass melodic certainly enough to be Paul McCartney. How they use the bass to give much the melodic mainframe is an idea of some genius. Sure, I can’t find Lennon in there much, if possibly lurking in the simple piano line, as if then filched by the brothers Gallagher.
Larkin Poe – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Now this really is different, not only for the song, but for the performers concerned. The sisters, Rebecca and Megan Lovell, are well-known for their often acoustic slide guitar heavy renditions of many a song, often culled from the orthodox blues-rock idiom. Indeed, we have featured them here. However, and as this demonstrates, they are not averse to trading in some bluegrass tropes into their style. Here, it is Rebecca on mandolin and vocals, with Megan on slide, and stems from 11 or so years ago. Possibly even more intriguing is an earlier version still, with the mandolin largely replaced by fiddle.
O’Hooley & Tidow – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Still too mainstream? This ain’t, and I remain divided as to whether I actually like it or merely admire it. I guess it answers that question about whether Massive Attack sustain an assault by full on-unaccompanied Anglo-folk mode. I’m not even sure that is how I’d classify it, as, no matter how one of the duo sticks to that script, the other drifts deliberately into other places entirely, in both tune and thematic. It’s certainly nothing much like the original and might even catch a familiar listener unawares, if caught out of context.
Heidi Tidow and Belinda O’Hooley are an established both folk duo and life partnership, married since 2016, parents to a six year old. With a slew of albums under their belts, covers have always been a small yet important feature in their repertoire, and this song featured on their second disc, The Fragile, in 2012.
Jones – Teardrop (Massive Attack cover)
Feeling a touch more orthodox safety may now be needing sought, this final version should calm any ruffled feathers, and is probably my favorite of these five. The vocals are strong enough to divert from the original, without losing any of Fraser’s waiflike intensity, but it is the arrangement that really grabs. The bass, percussion and marimba conduct a stately and conducive threesome, over the duration of the song. Taken at a faster lick than Massive Attack might ever seem capable of, it seems to come from a covers channel on YouTube, Cover4K, although Jones (aka Cherie Jones) does have a recording history also, both in her own right (New Skin, 2016) and in various other formats, including as a guest vocalist for Tom Chaplin, once of Keane.
Here is another version she has offered, stripped back to voice and electric guitar.
