Okay, so early last week when I reviewed Autumn of the Seraphs, I totally forgot about this amazing cover that I discovered a while back!
“Penelope” is the first song I ever heard by Pinback and it’s also my favorite song by them. On the surface (wait for it …), the song is about a fish struggling to stay alive and keep from floating to the surface of the water (there it is!). Sure, the song’s about a fish but it could easily mean so much more. A struggling relationship? A dying friend? A love song? A fish … literally? I’m still not quite sure, but this song is amazing. If it is about a fish, Pinback expresses so much emotion about watching this little thing struggle. I absolutely love the water/ocean/nautical themes of the song that stay constant throughout.
Aside from the potential meanings of the song catching my attention, the musical aspect of Pinback’s “Penelope” definitely caught my ears as well. The melody and Rob Crow’s voice opening the song start off sweet but the drums build up and a really great bass line dances in and all of a sudden makes you feel like moving your body even though the song seems so mellow. It calms you down until those couple of instances when you hear the drums build up and the claps that get you pumped up and moving again. I absolutely love this song, if you can’t tell! Everything about it is great, but do I think Saosin does it justice?
Since some may not have heard of Saosin, I’ll just say that they fall under the screamo/hardcore genre that stemmed from all those melodious screaming bands (which I’ll admit, I used to be really into until about a couple years ago when I started only favoring a few bands). I was never really into Saosin but I recently heard their cover of “Penelope” and I LURVED it right away! I am not at all saying that I like Saosin’s version more than Pinback’s. Actually, the two versions are two completely different monsters and I love them both in different ways.
Saosin uses those emo influences to give this song an extreme slow-down, implemented with nothing but two acoustic guitars and ghostly harmonization. Later, beautiful slow strings are introduced. In an interesting way, they clash with the acoustic guitars but it doesn’t sound bad. It just sounds eerie; eerily cool!
Though Pinback’s version is pretty slow, the bouncy bass-line and drum build-ups give it a bit more of an upbeat feel. Saosin, on the other hand, totally give this song a make over/under (depending on how you feel about the cover) and slow it down completely. I love their take on the song but still love Pinback’s as well. Either way, “Penelope” is an overall great song!