I first heard Iron & Wine on a plane flying over San Francisco. I was on my way back to the East Coast after visiting family in California, and my family had booked a red-eye flight. It was probably around 10 p.m., and the lights had just gone dark in the cabin, meaning I could see the city lights over the bay as the plane shivered in the turbulence of takeoff.
The first song I heard was a cover, though I didn’t know it at the time. Ironically, the title was “Such Great Heights,” a song originally released in 2003 by The Postal Service. The rich, raw, and melancholy acoustic song struck something deeply sentimental, and it was through this sound that I first learned of Iron & Wine.
It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised to hear the original song by The Postal Service. Unlike Iron & Wine’s rendition, this song was upbeat, synth-poppy and electronic — wholly opposite of what I had known it to be. It seemed that, other than the lyrics and the basic chord progression, Iron & Wine had altered everything about the song, and, to my surprise, I found myself enjoying the cover much more than the original.
I understand that cover reviews aren’t very popular. Original music is exciting. Covers are overdone. But I’d like to argue that there’s an understated art to making cover music, especially when the music is altered and reimagined to the extent that artists like Iron & Wine curate it. On Sept. 12, Iron & Wine released a collaborative cover album, Making Good Time, with Ben Bridwell of Band of Horses, featuring songs by U2, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Foreigner, Roxy Music and boygenius.
It might seem like an eclectic variety of artists, which is exactly what makes the album so interesting. The album flows easily into itself, incorporating Iron & Wine’s signature indie folk sound, overlapping guitars, and Ben Bridwell’s rich vocals. A few of these songs I had not heard before, so I decided to listen to the whole album before going back to listen to the originals. Some of the covers were more obvious than others: In “Luther,” Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell sing of “[dropping] it like it’s hot” and include all of the various sexual innuendos present in the original lyrics by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. It’s not often you hear hip hop and R&B reinterpreted into a folk song, which makes some of the lines almost comical when paired with the folksy guitars and spacey piano lines. But the song itself somehow works; the way Iron & Wine and Ben Brideall sing is almost reminiscent of Kendrick Lamar’s melodic rap, which, strangely, pairs well with Iron & Wine’s wistful vocal tone.
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” originally by U2, is the first track of the album. While the changes made to this song are apparent when comparing the cover to the original, the fact that the track itself is a cover is not remotely as apparent when listening to both versions for the first time. Perhaps it’s the fact that the lyrics are not as jarring as those in “Luther” or the fact that the song is sung and not rapped. But regardless, the track itself sounds like a song that could very well be part of Iron & Wine’s discography. Rhythmically acoustic, its sentimental lyrics and soft horns provide it a melancholic tone mirroring that of Iron & Wine’s voice.
The same can be said about the next two tracks, “I Want to Know What Love Is” and “More Than This.” Both based off of synth-y ’80s songs, the two tracks once again blend seamlessly into Iron & Wine’s style; the fact that they are covers is almost indiscernible.
The last song of the album, “Ketchum, ID,” is a cover of a song originally by boygenius. Unlike the other artists covered in the album, boygenius is an acoustic indie band and the song is originally an acoustic indie song. Still, I was surprised by the changes that Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell were able to make to a song already of a similar genre. The original song by boygenius almost sounds acapella, featuring overlapping vocals and only one lightly-plucked guitar. Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell incorporate a heavier tone, with denser guitar lines and fading horns in the background.
I consider Making Good Time as much a work of art as any original EP or album. The creativity that goes into reinterpreting songs of all different genres and curating them to fit one album cannot be understated. Good cover music does not rival original music but reconceptualizes it. And that originality is what makes Iron & Wine’s music so appealing.
Yaelin Hough is a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at yh2299@cornell.edu.
