#songoftheday = Bruce Woolley & Polly Scattergood with The Radio Science Orchestra: “Video Killed the Radio Star”

I’m not sure how this track came about.  I only heard about it because Polly Scattergood was kind enough to send me a message on Twitter with the link.  As you know, Polly is one of my favorite artists, and I’ve interviewed her twice for this site, so I immediately fell in love with this.  For many reasons, though.  For starters, I love covers that reinvent the original song.  Covers where every note is the same are so boring and tend to seem pointless to me.  On this cover of  The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” Bruce Woolley & Polly Scattergood with The Radio Science Orchestra totally slowed it down during the verses, taking it into icy, trip-hop territory.  They also took what was originally a pretty upbeat song, or at least I thought it was, and turned it into something eerie and downtrodden.  But in a good way!  I also love how they gradually build up the song until it becomes something monstrous.  I love songs that start off light then shift into being a massive song that could knock you off your ass like this.  The production here is exquisite, too.  I love P0lly’s solo stuff, which is perfect electro-pop, and that’s what this reminds me of.  Hard to believe it’s one-half of folk duo OnDeadWaves doing this.  I also love the video for this song, which manages to feel retro and futuristic all at once.  And, sure, Polly sounds great comme d’habitude (as usual, but it sounds better in French so forgive me).

Youtube info: