This really shouldn’t work – a gently melancholic tune by a fey posh boy from the 1960s sped up by a rowdy bunch of gurriers from Dublin. But it does.
Perhaps it’s the plaintive tone that Grian Chatten always brings to his distinctively Dub vocals; maybe it’s the sympathetic playing of the rest of the Fontaines. Obviously it’s both.
Like all Irishmen, Fontaines D.C. have grown up steeped in folk music, so they’re coming at it from the right direction rather than just wedging an old tune into their post-punk palette and hoping for the best.
As for fans of Nick Drake, well one hopes they appreciate the sincerity of the tribute even if they struggle with the galloping drums that propel this version.
I’m not sure anyone who’s a fan of Nick Drake necessarily needs a tribute album by a new generation of artists reinterpreting his songs. But there is one – this is from it – and it has the blessing of the Drake estate.
Anyway, here it is: feel free to disagree.