Those who know me well know that my affinity for a good cover song (and sometimes even a truly awful cover) knows no bounds.  For reasons that will soon become apparent, I’ve recently been revisiting Nirvana’s Nevermind, particularly with an eye to the tributes that other artists have paid in cover form.

Shortly before last year’s departure of lead singer Geike Arnaert, the Belgian electropop group Hooverphonic [m] [w] recorded an excellent cover of “In Bloom.”  Hooverphonic’s rendition is relatively faithful to Nirvana’s original performance, in the sense that the instrumentation is similar… there aren’t any washboards or kazoos or trombones or anything.  The loud/quiet dichotomy of the original is also preserved, but instead of ramping up the noise on the choruses, Hooverphonic puts its own twist on the song by bringing it down to an ambient dream pop-esque sound.

All in all, Hooverphonic’s rendition of “In Bloom” does everything a good cover should do:  it keeps what’s great about the source while straying from the original version in a way that makes it sound comparable to the covering band’s original material.  So go get out your trip-hop flannels and give this genre twist a try by downloading “In Bloom” from Music Is Art.  Enjoy!