Fever Ray - Mercy Street / Dry & Dusty

Here spooky pop chanteuse Fever Ray (aka the lassie from The Knife as everyone already knows) turns her warbly talents towards covering Peter Gabriel's 'Mercy Street'. I dunno, this just sounds a bit of a plod-a-thon with it's head firmly wedged between the buttcheeks of the 80's. It sounds like Berlin, Kate Bush's cast-offs & Shakespeare's Sister. I think it's because it's a Gabriel tune so it's got that worthy, mid tempo plod thing happening. Production, however, is flash & contemporary thus impressive. The flip side is far, far more preferable & sounds just like classic early Knife or one of the much better tunes off her album. I hate to keep using the word cosmic but this is a sensual, cosmic ballad, full of wonder & an eerie magic. So it's still worth a recommendation on the strength of that one tune!