They’ll Press What Is Left Into New

By David Topping

If you’ve ever thought, “Hey, Final Fantasy’s ‘The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead’ is really heartbreaking and gorgeous and fragile, but I just wish it rocked a little harder,” boy oh boy is that a coincidence, because the Darcys have just released a cover of Owen Pallett’s song, which you can listen to and judge against the impossible standard of the original now. It’s not that the replacement of Final Fantasy’s keyboard, violin, and glockenspiel with your standard drums, bass, guitars, and gravely voice is necessarily bad—the Darcys’ track has its moments, particularly in the first half—it’s just a bit weird to have such delicate material treated so forcefully. There are good reasons why Papa Roach has never tried to cover Sufjan Stevens, ya know?