Which of these songs from a mid-90s "Britpop covers The Smiths" CD from some French rock magazine sounds least appealing?

bragg

unexpectedly, the best ones are actually supergrass and placebo.

Bis.

I have heard the Billy Bragg one and it was pretty good!

The rest do sound like they'd be horrible though. Worst must be Placebo and Divine Comedy.

If I could do so using imaginary minutes and seconds I would listen to the Frank & Walters one I think.

divine comedy obv. one of the worst things from britpop. I dont ever want to hear this cover.

Two and a half of those Britpoppers are Irish. Going out on a limb, i'll say that Vicar in a Tutu - Therapy? in particular has bad idea written all over it, like even more than the overall concept.

Smiths covers album without scheider tm - the light = worthless.

The Placebo one is pretty excellent, yeah.

The two that jumped out at me were Bragg and Bis, lol. I really really REALLY want to hear that Therapy? cover! xp: lol

*schneider

I have heard the Divine Comedy version - it truly is beautiful. It's a pretty faithful cover, but Neil's voice suits it. Placebo's suprisingly not as grating as expected either.

I don't like the looks of that Therapy? one though.

Vicar in a Tutu – Therapy? (2:42)

lol

Agreed the Divine Comedy is best of a bad bunch

The only two I'd really be interested in checking out at this point are the Boo Radleys and the High Llamas.

I guess I'll vote for the Bragg cover as it's not even a Smiths' favorite of mine to begin with.

Placebo.

evidence 1 = their Kate Bush cover.

evidence 2 = everything else they have ever done.

I've actually heard some of these - none of the others could be as bad as the Placebo one. Didn't they do a whole album (or bonus disc or something) of covers? Bound to be terrible. Supergrass doing 'Some Girls...' was pretty decent from what I can remember.

gotta be bis

i want to say placebo but it's still bis

The combo of Bragg's voice and that song has got "stick your head in the oven" written all over it.

The combo of Bragg's voice and that song has got "stick your head in the oven" written all over it.

― Birth Control to Ginger Tom (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 7 January 2009 18:26 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

Didn't they do a whole album (or bonus disc or something) of covers? Bound to be terrible.

They did, and it was not.

placebo are shit

there's no other way of putting it

It's a Wednesday night over there by now, go out and get drunk or something.

They did, and it was not.

Hm, going by their versions of 'Bigmouth...' and 'Johnny And Mary' I think I'll steer clear...

tomorrow morning placebo will still be one of the worst bands of the 90s.

Placebo.

Weirdly enough, I seem to remember being the most meh about the Boo Radleys one -- probably just a result of too-high expectations and the fact that the song's not a very good match for them.

The Bragg was good, I think; Bragg's always good playing Smiths, especially his many versions of "Jeane."

Keep in mind that Placebo are playing "Bigmouth Strikes Again," and this was like early Placebo, when they were more college-rocky, and I seem to recall that kinda being a highlight of this comp. (Someone's OTM upthread: the Supergrass was also good.)

I can't remember the Bis but it might be the big loser -- that or, surprisingly, the Divine Comedy one, which I remember as surprisingly bad. Possibly worse than Therapy?

I mean, seriously, on a more insecure day I wouldn't admit this publicly, but the first Placebo record was pretty great, and for me it doesn't match very well with perceptions of them later. Or rather ... there's something almost Smashing Pumpkins about their career path, with that first record being like a really stripped-down non-annoying Siamese Dream sort of thing and then a long tumble down into ponderous gothy overdramatic embarrassment. (Except I think I like that first Placebo better than Smashing Pumpkins -- it's really pretty good.)

ponderous gothy overdramatic embarrassment

Hooray! (But I don't quite sense the parallel career path, though -- if anything Corgan kept trying to do eight million different things while Molko et al were more 'well, how can we refine what we've already figured out?')

1st album was fine, everything after was dreadful.

Placebo every time.

I remember that comp! Yes, placebo and spergrass were best, divine comedy I remember being a bit wrong (I used to like divine comedy, not so much now) but billy bragg was dreadful. That voice + moany song ( I always thought that was the worst song on the original album) = bad bad bad.

I also remember placebo bringing it "up-to-date" - something like "the flames rose to her roman nose and her mega-drive started to melt."

Therapy! were always horrible, so that sounds less appealing. Never liked Placebo and Bis either. The rest of the bands were mostly great, although tribute albums are rarely of much musical interest.

lol I thought this was the comp with Four Non Blondes on it for a sec and I was about to REALLY make fun of Geir

The Therapy? one sounds like it has the most potential to be horrible, with Bragg up next. I think I've only heard the Placebo one (which I liked) and the Bis one (which I didn't), but I can imagine that the Trash Can Sinatras and Divine Comedy ones would be pretty good.

i remember thinking the Bis version was pretty good but then i liked a lot of terrible shit in those days so y'know don't trust me

if i hadn't heard any of these i'd say high llamas, but the true answer is bis. it's not that they aren't capable of doing good covers (quite the opposite), but this one is wretched beyond wretched

I hadn't heard of Placebo before this, I remember hearing their track on the radio and thinking "what are they doing to that poor Smiths song?"

That Boo Rads one? feared the worst, actually it's fine.

(yep, bought it because of that one track)

placebo are fucking shit. the thought of them butchering a song by one of the greatest bands in history is depressing to say the least.

It's as good as you think it is.

haha. i can take solace in the fact that i'll probably never be forced to hear it.

I can say the bis cover on there is probably the worst one, and that’s coming from a huge fan of theirs. They claimed later it was bad on purpose because they hated The Smiths, and they only used toy instruments they bought on the day, er - whatever.

Played that Divine Comedy cover on St*lus when Eddie Guerrero died. Nice guitars. Kind of sounds like falling asleep drunk.

(I have heard none of these)

Bis = contrived artlessness achieves irony
Placebo = contrived irony achieves artlessness

...I don't know what that means either but it seemed right when I typed it.

I'm guessing the Placebo is worst, though I suppose I used to like "36 Degrees" and "Come Home" and I don't know the date of this compilation, but I'm imagining it with Molko vocals in my head and it makes me want to hurt people. Especially if Bri attempts to copy the nauseating multitracked choir of pitched-up Morrisseys as backing vocals on the original.

he didn't

Having heard the Martin Newell cover of Some Girls are Bigger than Others I'm going with that.

I remember thinking that the only one that tried anything even vaguely new or interesting was Bis. Even the thought of Brian Molko's voice still puts my teeth on edge, so I voted for that.

Stoked for the results of this in six-and-a-half years' time.

Not enough hatred for the Frank and Walters on this thread.

Maybe those dudes were crammed down the throats of the British Isles in ways I'm unaware of, but from a US perspective they seem way, way, way too harmlessly fun to really hate on.

yeah i actually really like their early singles and parts of their 2nd album..

(me from US)

Poll Closing Date: Saturday, 11 July 2015 00:00
You're not giving us much time, are you?

i heard the bis one by chance, actually. i was getting the original off soulseek and spotted their version in the list, thought it would be a larf. sort of a half-arsed attempt at drum'n'bass, not very good.

Crikey, I remember hearing this once. Nice cover. Otherwise can't remember a thing about it except that the Supergrass one was indeed okay. I rather suspect that tracks 1-9 were not so good

I've got this. The Placebo one is, as mentioned above, the best of a bad bunch. I'm a big Therapy? fan but this wasn't the greatest song choice and is a effectively just the original played with loud choppy guitars - tolerable at best. The Bis one is fucking awful, and the Boo Radleys one is unexpectedly poor. The rest are just dull.

Bigmouth Strikes Again – Placebo (3:51)

might get my vote, gonn mull on it for a year or two though

I have heard the Billy Bragg one and it was pretty good!

The rest do sound like they'd be horrible though. Worst must be Placebo and Divine Comedy.

If I could do so using imaginary minutes and seconds I would listen to the Frank & Walters one I think.

― Eyeball Kicks, Wednesday, 7 January 2009 17:33 (3 years ago)

Have since heard the Supergrass one and it's pretty good too!

I have no idea why I would have wanted to hear the Frank & Walters one.

I would vote Bis if I had to vote now. But I don't. I will make use of all of the allotted time.

That's a hell of a long time to set a poll!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Miss Dom Passantino so much.

I used to have this album but ended up selling it for £20 on Amazon. The worst one is the Placebo cover by a long way.

The Divine Comedy and Supergrass ones are the only keepers. I love The Boo Radleys but it is not a good version.

The age of this poll is hilarious.

I would vote Bis if I had to vote now. But I don't. I will make use of all of the allotted time.

― Eyeball Kicks, Sunday, December 16, 2012 2:29 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Still mulling this over, but just can't see past Bis.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I can't bring myself to click and see. This is all happening so quickly.

Forgot to vote!

There always seemed to be more time, until there wasn't.

ban dom