Okay, it’s only our Latin Grammy Three Days. So here’s a Colombian band covering a Europe-wide dance smash of yore..
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[5.00]
Katherine St Asaph: The original is Eurodance that’s wistful beyond its genre anyway, so I don’t mind this quirky acoustic cover nearly as much as you think I would. It helps that there’s imagination to the accompaniment.
[6]
Edward Okulicz: The In-Grid original, a huge European smash that also tormented me during its long run in the Australian charts, is a particular pet hate of mine, what with its oppressively tart accordion noodling. It’s interesting that this cover sounds almost unrecognisable, focusing on the song underneath the cheap Eurodance. Quelle surprise, it’s not a very good song either!
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: I wasn’t familiar with the original, so I heard it first as of a piece with Monsieur Periné’s body of work, which I’ve always kind of liked but found a little too shaggily twee to really love. Having to keep up a dance rhythm seems to have goosed them into a welcome liveliness. Still goes on too long.
[6]
Iain Mew: I’d never heard the original before; listening to it after this just makes me all the more impressed that they managed to get something so sweet and bright from source material which obscures those qualities so well.
[7]
Alfred Soto: The star is the rhythm section: clippity cloppity drums and bongos complementing the singer’s way too winsome vocal melody when toughness makes more sense. Another point for the string section coda.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: As a rule, I don’t much care for cutesy jazz-pop, whether it’s the likes of Nouvelle Vague, or Zooey Deschanel, or this Colombian combo. And especially when sung in French, to be honest, which seems to up the “precious” factor tenfold. This chugs along pleasantly enough, I suppose, but that’s all it does.
[4]
Megan Harrington: It’s flimsy, and the heavy, dramatic strings that comprise the outro are like covering a mousse with Betty Crocker frosting from the jar.
[4]