"Beautiful" by Brett Anderson (Yes, the Christina version)

D

dazzak

New Member
Most welcome surprise of the year goes to recovering genius Brett Anderson for his cover version of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful". This is kind of what I was waiting for from his YouTube videos - something original, insightful, special... something only very very few people could pull off. And he's done it, without resorting to irony, without his tongue in his cheek and without somehow coming out of it looking like a major twat. What used to be a very nice ballad by a slightly annoying but talented diva has been turned into, well, a really nice ballad by a slightly annoying and incredibly talented diva.

This took balls, but it paid off so much. Marvelous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib-KSpQese0
 
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Thanks for this, certainly not bad.
 
Wish he had tried his luck with Dirrty or Genie in a Bottle instead...

Beautiful is just such a horrible song, written by that woman who sang the most horrible song ever written: What's Up.

Hope he sticks with his own songs next time. Song for my Father and Scorpio Rising sound really good.
 
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dazzak said:
Most welcome surprise of the year goes to recovering genius Brett Anderson for his cover version of Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful". This is kind of what I was waiting for from his YouTube videos - something original, insightful, special... something only very very few people could pull off. And he's done it, without resorting to irony, without his tongue in his cheek and without somehow coming out of it looking like a major twat. What used to be a very nice ballad by a slightly annoying but talented diva has been turned into, well, a really nice ballad by a slightly annoying and incredibly talented diva.

This took balls, but it paid off so much. Marvelous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib-KSpQese0
Click to expand...

that was cool
but
98547454.jpg

but aggie is purdier

&

ps:i h8 the real hitchens
 
Brett's clutching at straws isn't he? Can't get any interest in his own work so has to try to get some publicity with a well known cover. It's all a bit Jo Wiley Live Lounge really.
 
I watched all of the solo things he posted and thought "Beautiful" was the least annoying performance of all. Is he perhaps trying to aim for the James Blunt demographic? I hope it's not just another suede/not suede project.
 
Danny said:
Brett's clutching at straws isn't he? Can't get any interest in his own work so has to try to get some publicity with a well known cover. It's all a bit Jo Wiley Live Lounge really.
Click to expand...
What publicity, you dip? At most, 10,000 or so people will see this, most of them already fans who will buy his forthcoming stuff the second it's released.

I'm sure Brett's under no illusions as to how successful his album will be. He knows it'll go completely under the radar of the average Q/Uncut/NME-reading punter and the rest simply won't care, so if anything was clutching at straws, it was his recent cover of "Europe Is Our Playground". There was, to my mind, absolutely no point behind that exercise aside from pandering to necrophilic nostalgia-junkies. I think it actually did more bad than good (again, let's not forget, these are still only f***ing YouTube videos). However, this song being chosen by someone like Brett who had absolutely major problems with drugs - that's the angle I automatically saw it from - and was basically serious junkie for a long time is really touching and just filled with the real emotion the songwriter (Perry) or singer (Xtina) often blemishes. Serious drug addicts face huge problems once they're clean with rediscovering not only their former selves, but a purity and beauty that was lost in the addiction. That's what I see and for that reason this is f***ing magical.
 
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Another bloody gorgeous performance was posted on Christmas Eve, by the way. I'm always behind on these...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwEk8_tNq0Q

Apparently, this won't be on Brett's album, but on Fred Ball's (aka Pleasure) one called Pleasure 2 out in the next two months or so. He's co-written most of Brett's album and co-produced it, I believe. Justine Frischmann collaborated with Ball on "Don't Look The Other Way", so clearly Brett's keeping it in the family.
 
since Youtube is the only place these exist, how can you grab the audio only? i wouldn't mind an EP of these songs to spin before the album comes out...
 
I know! I've never felt more tempted to travel to see someone live, especially given they could be the only gigs he does (Moscow's fairly obviously out of the question). Shame the three gigs are on bloody Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's certainly gonna be a tough decision. You gonna go to any?
 
Okay, the album version of "Song For My Father" has been played on Swedish radio a lot, so a friend gave me a link. Made it into an MP3, here it is:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LBWNOF2C

My previous minor lyrical reservations have completely disappeared, this is f***ing magnificent. The slightly arrythmic drum beat, the heavenly strings, that voice, the intertwining of the guitar and piano in the second verse, the electronic/yelping break, Brett truly writing from the heart... Practically perfect.
 
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