Music Review // Landis Harry Larry "We Built This City" (Big Curve Music)

 

When deciding to cover a song which is widely known, I've always wondered what artists thought going into it.  Do you try and make the song as close to the original as possible?  Do you cut it up and make it unrecognizable?  Do you just try to make it sound like something that you wrote yourself?  I feel like a little bit of all of these is important, but having a song sound as close to the original as possible kind of defeats a lot of the purpose in my mind.

Luckily for fans of music, Landis Harry Larry has created a song which is almost unrecognizable as "We Built This City".   I feel like I've heard the Starship version of this song so many times over not just because I'm old but also because it happens to be the entrance theme for Tony Deppen, so that just seems like it also gets it stuck in my head.  If not for that connection, perhaps I wouldn't be as familiar with it.

Landis Harry Larry has created a version of "We Built This City" which is not quite The B-52's and not quite dark punk but it is certainly somewhere in between.   This cover doesn't even start with those traditional vocals, it just goes right into the dance dark punk.   The music video is in black and white with parts being animated while it also takes place in a city and it is certainly the type of visual one should enjoy while listening to this cover.

Artists have been extremely successful when it comes to taking an existing song and making it their own.  From Alien Ant Farm and Johnny Cash in a radio way, there have also been bands who have done it on a smaller level.   The fact that younger listeners could hear this and not realize it is a cover is one of the best parts of it as well because that just goes to show how talented Landis Harry Larry truly is.