Quick, Before It Melts.

It's tricky business recording cover versions. There's two consequences the covering artist can face, so it becomes a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure moment in the studio: Either go down as having created the definitive version of said song (a la Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah") or be dismissed as another hack trying to cash in or get cred on the back of another artist (sort of like how the Killers have channeled Springsteen through their latest work). Smarter move yet, is not to record the song in studio, but play it live; it then lives or dies in the moment and leaves no mark. The problem here is, when it's a good cover, there's rarely a record of it for posterity. Thank God someone had the good sense to record Final Fantasy's take on Bloc Party's "This Modern Love" from his show at Toronto's Great Hall, 11 January 2006 (as part of the Over The Top Festival). As stunning as the performance is to listen to, even more intoxicating is seeing it created live, by one man, one violin and a series of loop pedals that turns him into a veritable string ensemble all his own. Before listening to the song, watch it here. I dare you not to become hypnotized. The song itself is nothing spectacular (it's my favourite Bloc Party track) but Owen Pallett accomplished that rare feat; take someone else's music and make it better than they originally did. And the best thing is that it's never been committed to vinyl (and hopefully never will). This moment, this song, needs to live as a small, sampled snippet of his live work, and not a definition of Owen Pallet as an artist. In the video clip he says "thanks for not asking for "This Is The Dream of Win and Regine", alluding to his most popular song. I'm guessing (and hoping!) that one day he's going to be thanking audiences for not asking for "This Modern Love" just as he's about to launch into something even greater yet. [buy Final Fantasy here]

:MP3 Final Fantasy ~ "This Modern Love (Bloc Party Cover Live)"