My Hair’s On End About You

Field Music “Terrapin”

Field Music’s approach to covering this wonderful old Syd Barrett solo song is to essentially toss out most of the elements that made it very Barrett and remodel it as a late period Beatles pastiche. And hey, it worked! I love the dazed-out quality of Barrett’s recording, but the sharp dynamics of the Brewis brothers’ arrangement brings out the best of the song’s melody. You lose some things, sure – “I really love you, and I mean you” comes off better from a man who sounds totally disconnected from reality – but you gain others, like the crisp rhythmic turns and that harmonized middle eight. This is the best kind of cover: The essential appeal is there, but having the song go through another artists’ aesthetic brings out something fresh in the material.

Buy it from Field Music.