Gruesome Flowers: I and II

As a few of you may know, I'm a huge fan of The Wake, the legendary underground post-punk/indie pop glaswegian band. And, as a fan (even if a very recent fan), I have heard the tribute to them "Gruesome Flowers". I thought it was a lovely idea because it showed that there were a few current bands that had actual good taste in music. So, I risked and gave them a chance. One of the bands on that tribute, Wild Nothing, has caught my heart with their echoing guitars from Nocturne, their second album. But the others... well, it was what I expected.

Gruesome Flowers vol. I

The first "volume" had Beach Fossils and Wild Nothing as performers of the songs "Plastic Flowers" and "Gruesome Flowers". To start with this review, I'll analyse one of my absolute favourite songs from The Wake, which is "Plastic Flowers". I can basically say that Beach Fossils didn't take any risk (neither did Wild Nothing) and kept too close to the original. I expect, usually, covers to be different due to the own essence of the band that covers a certain song. But I was disappointed. Same happened with Wild Nothing, although they surprised me with the dreamier guitars and atmosphere. It kinda of gave their own life to the song itself. The song was slowed down, since most of Wild Nothing's songs are slow and calm.
As to Beach Fossils, I'm not saying they ruined the song or anything, because they didn't, but they should have done something different and maybe they should have reincarnated the song in the band's own structure. They even picked up a female voice to pretend it was Carolyn's. Nonetheless, it's not a bad cover, but it could have been better. Yet if we consider Beach Fossil's type of songs, it's very common and it sticks to the usual fast indie guitars, calm and distant voices, and monotonic beats.
Wild Nothing's "Gruesome Castle" is also very faithful to the original yet, they managed to give their own touch to the song with the echoes of their Nocturne-like guitars, the electronic-ish beats and printed the song in a very dreamy and ethereal environment. It's a well done cover, and a beautiful one as well.
Moving on to "Gruesome Flowers II", we have Craft Spells and Blouse covering the songs "Talk About the Past" and "Pale Spectre".
Craft Spells are notoriously influenced by The Wake (so my boyfriend says) and it would be obvious if they wouldn't change much in their cover. Basically, the only thing different was the voices. It didn't please me and it did disappoint me because although they're influenced by them, they could have reshaped the song, making it their own.

Gruesome Flowers vol. II

As to "Pale Spectre" by Blouse, I have to say I didn't know the band before but it surprised me. After being disappointed two times (almost three), I expected it to be rubbish and a simple copy of the original, but I was wrong. The song is completely slowed down and almost impossible to recognise. And it's beautiful! It feels like falling in slow motion into a bed of roses and snow, into a dream. The echoes of the beats from the drum are simply stunning, and the voice of their vocalist is quite different from Carolyn's, which pleased me, and it is very mesmerizing. It's a whole different world and almost as if a whole different song. As much as I might be a huge fan of The Wake, I think Blouse have actually improved the song. They have turned a very cheerful and cute song into a song that you play in your head when you fall into a pool all by yourself and stand there, underwater, for minutes without even caring if you're breathing or not. It's a notable improve, something I never thought saying. My congratulations to Blouse.