Such Great Heights…and Such Great Heights

Song: Such Great Heights
Artist: The Postal Service
Album: Give Up
Link: Such Great Heights
Genre: Electro-pop, Alterna-pop
Mood: hopeful, on edge, thumping

Song: Such Great Heights
Artist: Iron & Wine
Album: Such Great Heights – EP (or Garden State (Soundtrack from the Motion Picture))
Link: Such Great Heights
Genre: Acoustic Rock, Folk-Rock
Mood: hushed, drowsy, mellow

Description: For English class today, we had to bring in a song and an original cover that shows how, using the same material, an artist can create a unique work (we were doing this to explore and identify the unique sense of aesthetics of different artists.) Anywho, Iron & Wine does an amazing job covering a song written in a style completely polar to his. The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights features some cool electronic beats, which surprised me when I first heard the song because it comes together really well, despite using completely disjointed beats to get there. Those back beats contrast really well with the pop-style singing, which forms a neat, not quite rushed (but certainly on edge) song.

On the other hand, Iron & Wine’s is a slow soulful ballad featuring his amazing hushed voice and a guitar. It’s certainly the same song, but at first it seems hard to believe; the songs are so different. The tempo is far slower, it uses completely different instrumentation, but the melody and the lyrics are still the same. What Sam Beam (the main guy of Iron & Wine) really does differently is use the guitar to add some complexities that are uniquely different from The Postal Service. His beautiful voice certainly only adds to the mood that he creates, which is totally different than what he is covering. I feel that this is an incredibly good cover, not only because what it is covering is great, but because it is able to take that and make something so different that is still so good.

When, after I had played the two songs in class, my English teacher asked which one I liked better. Because he was expecting a specific answer, I went with Iron & Wine, but when he asked why, I went, “Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…”