'Over My Head' - Blog 3a

3A.
"Over My Head" by The Fray


"Over My Head" as covered by A Day To Remember



The song I have chosen for this blog is “Over My Head” by The Fray and the cover by A Day To Remember. The cover was done as part of a compilation called Punk Goes Pop in which punk bands have the opportunity to cover more mainstream, Top-40 music. All of the covers are very well done and offer a new spin to a familiar song which can be a welcome change especially when a lot of the pop music of today can sound very similar to many other songs. The two songs have a great deal of contrast (provided by the different styles of bands) and affinity (as can be expected in a cover) to each other that is shown through many different aspects of the song. The lyrics and the melody of the two songs is the exact same throughout the entire song. This helps the listener recognize the song in the cover. However, the speed of the two songs is drastically different as is the intensity and the pitch. The speed of the cover is quite a bit faster than the original mellow tempo of the first song. The faster tempo gives a little more energy to the song which is emphasized even more by the use of electric instruments instead of a piano being the basis of the song. The use of the electric instruments also effects the intensity of the song making it louder because of the changed instrumentation and the addition of other instruments adding to the volume. With the instrument change comes a vocal change as well. There are lower instruments added to the cover that are more prominent as well as a lower pitched lead singer and even a screaming voice in the cover that is a low drone sound. There is also a section that utilizes tension and release in the cover in which the sound of the song goes from being a hard rock screamo song to sounding more like the mellow, acoustic sounding original version. This change back to the original sound builds tension as you wait for the screamo style of the song to come back in to the song. I personally enjoy the original version of the song more. I’m not a huge fan of screamo which may be the main cause for this. At the same time, I also like the mellow feeling that The Fray gives to the song and it has a very relaxing nature to it as the instrumentation is light and the tempo is one that creates a kind of lull that you fall into while listening to it. I welcome the new take on an old song and think that A Day To Remember did a great job of taking a popular hit and making it their own while keeping the main aspects of the song the same as The Fray had originally intended them to be performed.