The best-selling 12″ single of all time, New Order‘s “Blue Monday” is a seminal step in the transition from disco to electronic dance music. Released very early in their career, it remains their most popular song.
The Krontjong Devils are a Dutch surf band who have been performing and recording for over 30 years. You might say they’re an institution at this point. For their latest album, their fifth, they’ve recorded a cover of “Blue Monday” and they’ve chosen the 12″ version because that’s really the seminal version.
They play it quite straight: A live drum kit playing the drum machine opening beat-for-beat. But, instead of a synth joining after a few bars, it’s a twangy guitar, naturally. The keyboard bass is replaced by a real bass and there’s even the famous break at the minute mark. One change they do make early on is water and seagull sound-effects because, you know, it’s surf music. We’re at the beach.
The guitar riff is also the same but it’s super twangy instead of the mild reverb on the original. The wordless backing vocals are very similar but the cascading synth in the original is replaced by guitar again. It’s only when we get to where the vocal comes in that there is a really obvious difference, which is that a twangy guitar replaces the vocal.
Of course, despite their faithfulness to the original arrangement, everything sounds different. It’s a surf track through and through. The rhythm instruments swing more and are less robotic/dancy than the original. The melodic instruments all sound like classic surf instruments and we can’t forget the beach sound effects.
It’s a fun but faithful cover. Check it out:
The b-side of the original single already has a perfect title for these guys (“The Beach”)