At just over eight minutes long, “I Think I’m In Love” is only the second longest track on Spiritualized‘s third and most acclaimed album, Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space. (It was so critically acclaimed in the UK, in fact, that the infamous NME named it “Album of the Year” over OK Computer.)
Two-Man Giant Squid are a post-punk quintet, formerly a trio, from Brooklyn who are about to put out their debut album. In this sense they do have something in common with J. Spaceman’s pre-Spiritualized band Spacemen 3, whose name also never matched their number of group members.
“I Think I’m In Love,” like any song of its length, is a bit of a challenge for a covering band: do you play the whole song? Like many longer tracks, “I Think I’M In Love” has multiple parts. In this case, it has two main parts. The track opens with keyboards, bass and guitar, which expands to more instruments nearly a minute in and then the first section of lyrics starts. This section lasts until about three minutes into the song and then there’s a jam. It’s four minutes before the call-and-response esque “I think I’m in love” begins, which runs throughout the second half of the song.
Two-Man Giant Squid decided to only cover that second half of the song. They have an opening that briefly nods at the intro to the first part, but it also manages to sound very different. But, less than a minute in, the guitar lick that opens the second section comes and then the singers start the call-and-response.
The sound is much more garagey, with distorted guitar featuring very prominent in the mix. There is still some of the original neo-psychedelic sound, though with various effects on the vocals. They drop some of the call lyrics replacing them with the song’s title. It’s a fun, energetic take on at least the second half of the track.
