Pitchfork

In his cover of Xiu Xiu's "Fabulous Muscles", Kid606 (aka Miguel Depedro) smooths over all of the original's tension and contradictions. Stretching and cutting up Xiu Xiu main guy Jamie Stewart's lone acoustic guitar, Depedro relegates the lyrics to the background as the track's ebullient and shimmering beat flattens out Stewart's vocal histrionics-- never before has the command "come on my lips" sounded incidental. For all of the pain and affect that Depedro filters out, though, he recaptures a real joy. The formerly (weirdly) heartbreaking line "Honey boy put my ashes in a jar beneath your workout bench" becomes a chant that keeps the track buoyant and fluttering. Covers are supposed to change the way we think about songs, and this one uses its source material so successfully, it's easy to forget the many ways this track (on 5RC's last release) could have failed.

MP3: > Kid 606: "Fabulous Muscles" (Xiu Xiu cover)
[from Remixed and Covered; due 04/20/07 on 5RC]