Hello everyone, it’s been a long time. I wanted to break off the cobwebs on my blog to share a reaction to Iris by Diamente and Ben Burnley. Let me preface by saying I liked the original by The Goo Goo Dolls better. Please note this is simply my opinion on the cover of this song, and not something to be passed off as legitimate factual information. So if you like this version, don’t let me stop you from listening to it!
Anyways, I’ve been listening to this song for most of the evening, and while I kind of like it, it pales in comparison to the original track. There are a few reasons I say this.
For starters, Diamante and Ben’s voices sound very artificial and auto tuned on this track. For full disclosure, I am not familiar with Diamante’s other works of music, but I know Ben doesn’t need autotune to sound better. The original version was before Autotune, and the production had a much more organic approach and sound to it.
The emotion and feel isn’t the same as the original. I get that Ben and Diamente were doing their best, but they didn’t make me feel the same way as John Rezeznik’s voice does. What I mean is that Ben and Diamente don’t sing with enough conviction, John Rez on the other hand made me believe in the sense of isolation and loneliness he was conveying towards his lover.
The cutting back on acoustic instruments was a mistake in my opinion, I feel the acoustic guitar, the string section, and mandolin being used on the original all the way through added more to the feel of the song’s narrative vs the electric guitar which made it sound hollow.
Finally, maybe this is a cheap reason, but I don’t feel any sense of nostalgia when I hear the new version. I wanted to get something out of this cover, but it’s just a song that happens to feature one of my all time Favorite singers on it. The original however reminds of how awesome of an era the late 90s were for great music. I suppose it’s unfair to keep comparing this new version to the original, but that’s the thing about covers, people will inevitably put the newer version in the shadow of the old one. I will close out by saying some positive things about the song though.
I like the vocal harmonies that Ben and Diamente have on this version, it does add an interesting twist to have a male and female vocalist singing together on this version. I do like the part right after the guitar solo as it shows some cool vocal harmony ideas. Lastly, I do think both singers have good voices for this type of song, I guess I was just expecting more out of it.
I hope I didn’t anger too many people with this post, I’m just expressing my thoughts as a Music Blogger. Below is the link to the original version for reference, too.
KCard.
Kevin Card 