Strong rumours around that this year's X factor winner will be releasing a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as their first single. Probably this girl who already sang it in her strangled Regina Spektor-meets-Kate Nash style, which has led to outraged allegations of a fix. As if the judges' vested interests have ever been much of a secret.
Anyway, my first thoughts weren't about the fix, or about which verses they're going to include and which not-so-hidden meanings they'll leave in. Instead they were of what remarkably bad (or good) timing this is for Emmy the Great, releasing an album whose title track quotes from the same song while the X Factor one will still be in the top ten. Her staccato "Hallelujah. The orginal. Leonard Cohen version." may well now sound even more pointed than intended.
Presuming that she wasn't hoping for a massive breakthrough with the song (probably not) it at least isn't a disaster of Mylo/Beta Band proportions, anyway.
And it shouldn't be a surprise because the song has slowly been making its way to this particular questionable accolade for a long time, with Jeff Buckley's version the obvious breakthrough and still hitting iTunes top tens whenever "Hallelujah" gets its moment on telly.
Then there's Rufus Wainwright, John Cale, Damien Rice, and its inclusion in Shrek. Fall Out Boy paid tribute on their last album, taking the chorus too which seems to be the simple, universal refrain that does the most to continue winning over new audiences with such ease and will surely survive undimmed.
1 comment:
That was pretty much my first thought as well, the thought that she'll be dismissed as a lyrical chancer as well as a Nash/Marling-alike (pop fact: Secret Circus came out in the same month both made their London live debuts)
I've already seen people questioning why Cohen had agreed to it. Well, given he had to go on a world tour to recoup some of the millions he lost to his former manager, I can't imagine the call from the publishers lasted too long.
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