POSTCARD ELBA

The Gloria Jones Challenge is our ongoing examination of the many, many, many covers of Jones’ classic Northern Soul jam “Tainted Love” – to see how they stack up compared to the original.

Today’s challenger goes somewhere between techno and industrial with the song.

But first, as always – the original.

And now, today’s challenger – Access Zero.

Postcard Editor: I honestly don’t think I could be any more ambivalent about this version, even if it literally didn’t exist, I would still feel the same, which is to say that I don’t feel much at all about it. Techno version with vocals that sound like they want to be evil, but they just don’t have it in them to do it. There is nothing evil about boredom, and that’s definitely how the singer sounds on this. Extended dance break in the middle is actually a nice break from his underwhelming delivery.  I’m putting this at the bottom of my list, below versions that I actually hate, because AZ’s lack of ability to make me even care one way or the other is even more offensive.

Postcard ChaCha: Somebody busted out the glow sticks and took a time machine back to 1998. When I googled this band, I really did expect this version had been recorded over 10 years ago. However, it seems this was released just LAST YEAR. That means the most remarkable thing about this recording is the fact that they managed to create such a ridiculously outdated version, that also sounds quite similar to Manson’s.

Our challenger standings now have links back to the original reviews to make it easier for you to checkity check them out.

Posted on May 9, 2011 at 10:57 am in Gloria Jones Challenge   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL