I was under the completely erroneous assumption that I had heard the best cover of "In Between Days." See, it was early 2004, I was driving north on route 95 and I was reaching for anything. Ben Folds released these little in-between-album EPs and the first song on the first EP was a cover of The Cure classic. It had splashy drums. It moved about a million miles an hour. I was helpless to fight it.
But into the electro-throwback breach come Mystery Jets and Esser with their little piece of heaven. This version of "In Between Days" is a little bit bleeping synths and a little bit bouncy tempo. It's probably lighter than the original, which would be hard to do if this song wasn't about something so crushing. Emotional disaster never sounded so good. So, Ben Folds, consider yourself unseated. I know it was wrong when I said it was true.
The only question is: when Mystery Jets, an 80s throwback act, cover The Cure, a band who made their name and money in the 80s, where does that leave us on the irony scale? Does the universe still have meaning? This isn't a new spin on something old - it's a new band with an old spin, spinning something old in roughly the same way for a new audience. Got it? Has the dog finally caught its artistic tail? Is the snake now officially eating itself into non-existence? Answer: 'tis better to threaten the existence of the universe than to have never affected it at all.
Listen :: Mystery Jets and Esser - "In Between Days"
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