A barbershop version of the song is on the new Dudley Benson live album, which was reviewed by William Dart on a recent New Horizons show on Radio New Zealand. The Benson version is fragile and beautiful as expected, but young Patience & Prudence’s version from a bygone era is perhaps definitive. It’s just so catchy. I have been singing it non-stop for the last two days. If anything is going to make me learn more than three ukulele chords, it’ll be this.
Artists
800 Cherries African Head Charge Aira Mitsuke Akira Yamaoka Aural Vampire Ayumi Hamasaki Billie Ray Martin Billy Bragg Bremen Bruce Springsteen Buffalo Daughter Burial Cabaret Voltaire Dave Dobbyn David Bazan De De Mouse Depeche Mode Die!! Die!! Color!!! Donna Muir Dudley Benson Emiliana Torrini Glasvegas Hangry and Angry Helen Love Honey Sac Joanna Newsom Kahimi Karie Kate Bush Kate Rusby Macdonald Duck Eclair Magnetic Fields Matryoshka Molice Moodswings Mosaic.wav Naivepop Or Petitfool Noodles Omodaka Patience & Prudence Perfume Peter Gabriel Plus-Tech Squeeze Box Polysics Public Enemy Puffy Ramones Saori@destiny Shelby Earl Sleepy.ab Spitz Strawberry Machine Susumu Hirasawa Tamaki Nami The Aprils The Bellbirds The Hidden Cameras The Pipettes Tomoyasu Hotei Tsushi Mamire Wagdug Futuristic Unity Wildbirds & Peacedrums YMCK Zoe Keating Zowie Émilie Simon
Émilie Simon — Song of the Storm
Reviewers often say things like “this song sounds like Kate Bush with electronic backing”. But this song really does sound like that, exactly. Émilie is doing a perfect Kate impression. The tone of voice, the vocal inflections, the lyrics, the musical arc — it’s all perfect. The rising note of hysteria towards the end is very compelling. But all with a much more modern arrangement.
I always lamented the fact that Kate’s arrangements and production always seemed to be stuck in the ’80s, and I wondered how different things could be if she updated her musical palette. Well, Émilie Simon provides an answer here. It sounds great.