John Scalzi mentioned Max Raabe over the weekend, and I finally got around to listening today. ‘Max Raabe performs Tainted Love as if the Weimar Republic somehow made it to 1981’ is his description, and it’s pretty accurate. There’s a fair few Youtube “videos” of his songs around; my favourite of all his covers is (currently) Super Trouper. The Apple Store has some more tantalising covers, including what, from a 30-second clip, sounds like a fantastic version of Eurythmics’ There must be an angel.
I love this sort of stuff. Playing 80s pop songs in the style of a swing band from the 30s is a form of educated musical humour that is a sign of health in our cultural discourse. And it’s also the sort of thing that was almost impossible to get a decent audience for before the Internet and the realisation that, no matter how obscure your chosen interest, there are probably a thousand or so people somewhere that agree with you completely and want to find out what you’re going to do next.
Oh, and their cover of Let’s talk about sex is pretty damn good also.
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