There is a light, dum dum, that never goes dum dum out

The Smiths. Say what you want, genuises. In the 80s they've delivered plenty a wonderful songs, wonderful guitar, wonderful voice (this took me a while to write, I'm not a modern Morrissey fan), wonderful words. If there's something a sensitive subject, it must be covering the Smiths. Placebo did a good job with 'Bigmouth strikes again', the title alone suits Brian Molko perfectly and they did a good job upgrading the walkman to a discman in this 90s remake. When Johnny Marr started out playing with The Cribs, they played 'Panic', a song that suited the attitude of the Cribs. Of course Ta-tu's 'How soon is now' never happened, the excistance of this version is denied. Unless you fancy an earbleed and a disturbance of a life time, you could try and look for it on youtube, I strongly suggest you keep on denying this version excists.

Now then. The Dum Dum Girls have a new EP. Yippee! On which they cover 'There's a light that never goes out'. Oh.
In case you are unaware, 'There's a light...' is highly regarded the Smiths' best and most sensitive work. The Dum Dum Girls are one of the many garage girl bands out there. One of the best though, let's that be said. But still. It doesn't exactly sound like a combination made in heaven and approved by the God of Rock and all that is holy.

When I got my hands on that cover I held my breath. I expected the worst. I was tensed when I clicked [play]. This had to be, with all my respect to Kirsten Dundred (Dee Dee Penny) who is a very talented woman, truly awful.

Well, it isn't. Far from it. 'There's a light' is fresh, it rocks and it's good. Really good. There's no reverberation in her voice (hallelujah for that), she sings this brilliantly and the backing vocals are subtle and nice. The song is heavier than the original. They didn't copy the song and yet it's very recognizable. It's also very much Dum Dum Girls. The Smiths and Dum Dum Girls a good combination? Well yes! But then the Dum Dum Girls have been regarded the result of The Cure and The Bangles having mated in 1982. It's a logic result. Don't fear the new Dum Dum Girls EP, it's pretty good!

Dum Dum Girls - He Get's Me High is out 01-03-2011 on Subpop.