Post by #Infinity on Mar 8, 2019 3:48:58 GMT 10
Belinda Carlisle sounded unpolished and genuinely spirited. The Duff sisters are opposite. They sound forceful, yet apathetic. The production tells a similar story, with the 1981 original sounding light and bouncy, while the cover is stiff and bloated.
The original song by Billy Idol is an untouchable classic, one which revels in all the flashiness of 1980s pop while packing the same punch as a heavy metal track, courtesy of the driving guitars and fiercely dynamic vocal performance.
This cover, however, falls completely flat on its face. Yes, there have been successful perspective flips on testosterone-fueled rock songs - check out some of Joan Jett’s covers, for example - but boy oh boy is this not one of them. The sparkly happy hardcore production is soulless and repetitive and barely works off of the vocals like the original did. Cherry herself comes from a rock background, but she sounds awkward and underpowered on this track. They changed the original pronouns for this remake, but considering the Billy Idol version came from such a dominant perspective, the stoicism of the production just exposes how unconvincing Cherry’s attempt at role-reversal is.