IDLES – “Peace Signs” (Sharon Van Etten Cover)

IDLES – “Peace Signs” (Sharon Van Etten Cover)

Just last week, Sharon Van Etten announced epic Ten, a double album celebrating the 10th anniversary of her sophomore album. The release repackages the original album with a mirror version featuring seven artists each taking on one of epic‘s songs. And the array SVE wrangled here was pretty wild — Fiona Apple, Lucinda Williams, Big Red Machine, and so on. So far we’ve heard the latter’s take on album opener “A Crime.” Today we get to hear another song from the tribute half of epic Ten.

When this was first announced last week, one of the things that immediately jumped out on that tracklist was that Van Etten got none other than the howling British punk group IDLES to cover “Peace Signs.” That song remains one of the rawest, most intense in SVE’s catalogue — perhaps the most aggressive, rock-leaning thing she’s ever written. So, we’re not exactly talking about IDLES taking on more quintessentially SVE-ish songs like, say, “One Day” or “Every Day The Sun Comes Up” or something. Still: It was easy to wonder what in the hell it’d sound like with IDLES playing a Sharon Van Etten song.

Turns out this new version of “Peace Signs” is a bit more roiling and guttural than Van Etten’s original, but also slightly toned down from the more caustic moments in IDLES’ work. Check it out below.

epic Ten is out digitally 4/16 and physically 6/11 via Ba Da Bing. Pre-order it here.

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