There's always been a Rosetta Stone quality to the pop song cover. Hearing a group's version of an established tune can reveal things about each via comparison, like setting a decoder ring to the proper coordinates between two acts. When I heard that Field Music were applying their prim British Invasion melodies and jazz-derived rhythms to a set of interpretations, I dialed in my hopes to the usual suspects: the Kinks, Sparks, something from The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, perhaps, maybe an early Talking Heads cut, a take on Kraftwerk's "The Model", or XTC's "Making Plans for Nigel". I didn't imagine Syd Barrett's "Terrapin" or Leonard Cohen's covered-to-death "Suzanne", nor the Ringo-sung White Album cut "Don't Pass Me By". Expectations successfully subverted, the Field Music Play… compilation, which pulls together these and five other covers, manages to be more than worthwhile, while teaching two important lessons about the group's approach. Musically and curatorially, the duo are undeniable music pragmatists with an impossibly dry sense of humor.
The pragmatism extends beyond the compositions and to the reasons for even considering some of the cover choices. The duo is reluctant to call Play an album; the majority of these versions were done for other projects. The well-trod modern standard "Suzanne" and left-field choice "Terrapin" were done for special issues of Mojo Magazine. As for the latter, David Brewis told me via email that he was much more in favor of covering Barrett's "No Good Trying", but it had already been scooped up by J. Mascis. That would explain the approach they took to "Terrapin"-- a folksy dirge far outside of their wheelhouse-- shoehorning it into the group’s twangy take on George Harrison-styled classic rock. Their version of Roxy Music's "If There Is Something"-- originally recorded for a School of Language B-side-- is a more successful translation. They swap out the glam pioneers' bluesy swagger for hospital corners and modernist lines, but manage to retain the original's sense of self-aware oddness, while highlighting the similarities between Brewis' and Bryan Ferry's vocal styles (perhaps a result of their geographical affinity).
But even when the covers here are a matter of picking from the leftovers, Field Music manage to create original versions invested with their own arid humor. Two cuts, originally issued as a 7" for 2012's Record Store Day, are drawn from the Pet Shop Boys' classic Actually, complete with with a tongue-in-cheek title (actually, nearly) and re-appropriation of the original album's cover photo. The thematic connections shared by PSB and Field Music are a revelation in their own right, but it certainly helps that the Brewises nail their version of the ever-great "Rent". It's not just a matter of the groups' mutual perspective that links love with financial necessity, either: "I ended up singing it as half gay love story and half love/hate open letter to Field Music itself," Brewis told me. "You pay my rent, but only just."
The highlight from Play is easily the duo's version of the Beatles' anti-classic "Don't Pass Me By", which would seem like an ironic jab at the British pop canon were it not a lemon-into-lemonade scenario in which they took a funny and quite inventive approach to the Fab Four's catalog. Also selected from the already picked-over for a Mojo compilation, the Brewises took the Residents' approach to the tune, mixing in elements from throughout the Beatles' discography. On the chorus, they lapse into "Don't Let Me Down", in a hilariously literal gambit. Listen closely (it's worth it), and you'll also hear bits of "Blackbird", "A Day in the Life", "Strawberry Fields Forever", and "Yer Blues". Here lies the lesson of Play, and one of the core truths of Field Music's rewarding discography: There is dark humor and interesting angles-- even joy-- to be found in basic realities and mundane commitments.
