The surf-rock cover is not quite as popular as the pop-punk cover or the slow piano cover, but it still a tradition with a long, rich lineage. And that tradition brings certain expectations. Toronto surf trio UV and the Rays both honor and subvert that tradition on their latest EP, Rayos, their second.
On their first record, UV and the Rays mostly stuck to a single time period, taking almost all of the material from the 1970s, with one track from the ’60s and one mash-up. This time, they’ve gone a little further afield, tackling everything from Johnny Cash to ’90s Cher, though they still include two (diverse) songs from the ’70s. And, much like the first record, they conclude things with an unexpected mashup.
They open with “Ring of Fire.” Chiming, delayed-guitar replaces the iconic mariachi horns, giving the listener zero sense of familiarity. The track has an eastern feel to it – or sometimes reggae – and there’s a deep groove underlying it. Guitar plays the famous vocal melody slowly, playing with it, not always doing the predictable thing. And the tempo never matches the original. It’s clearly still “Ring of Fire,” but you have to pay attention. It’s definitely not your standard surf cover.
“Heart of Glass” hues a little more to what we’re expecting, at least in terms of a recognizable song. There’s a shuffle rhythm, but the guitar taking the vocal melody is more familiar as is the tempo. There’s certainly less of a surf feel to the overall vibe of the cover, it’s a little more jam band.
Their cover of “Believe” begins with the bass taking Cher‘s echoing voice from the intro. Guitar again takes the vocal melody and it’s pretty familiar in the verse, with a dance beat accompanying the lead guitar. But then, for the chorus, they go full reggae. It ends with a proper rave up playing off the verse melody that combines a modification of the earlier dance beat with spirited jamming before the intro reappears as the outro.
Perhaps the most dramatic transformation is on “YMCA.” Yes, that “YMCA.” They play it as a waltz. It’s probably the first time you’ve ever heard “YMCA” as a waltz, it’s certainly the first time I’ve ever heard it played that way. The guitar takes the vocal melody, playing with it, before the bass gets its chance on one of the verses. It’s a really cool version of the song and it’s probably the highlight of the album.
Rayos concludes with an unexpected mashup, and in this case it’s one that would have been absolute sacrilege in the 1990s. It’s “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” with “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” This kind of thing isn’t so outrageous any more, of course. These kinds of mashups are pretty standard at this point, perhaps even rote. But UV and the Rays pull it off, convincing us that it’s just a normal song. They open with the famous hook from “Everybody” and when they switch to vocal melody of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” they still play the rhythm of “Everybody.” They only drop that rhythm when they go to the chorus, which they also take from the Nirvana song. They play off both songs as they build to a climax, which is the Nirvana chorus again. It works remarkably well for such two theoretically opposed songs.
In the end, Rayos is what it sets out to be–a fun, unpredictable journey through a bunch of 20th century hits that also plays around with the conventions of surf music.
Rayos track listing:
1. Ring Of Fire
2. Heart Of Glass
3. Believe
4. Y.M.C.A
5. Smells Like Backstreet
