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RUN FOR COVER: KING KRULE VS. WILLOW SMITH: “EASY EASY”

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King Krule Willow Smith

Run For Cover is a weekly music column comparing cover songs to the original version. Prepare for a major bending of rules as we hear musicians throw around genres, tempos, style, and intent. Whether they’re picking up another’s song out of respect or boredom, the results have impressed us.

Last year, Britain’s indie rock teen King Krule dropped his debut album, 6 Feet Beneath The Moon, to critical praise at just 19-years-old. It appeared to be out of nowhere, but he had spent the prior three years crafting up songs and getting himself nominated in BBC’s Sound of 2013 poll before 2012 even came to a close. It all seems very superhero-like.

Maybe that’s because his real, very comic book-sounding name is Archy Marshall.

Starting today through September 27, Marshall and his brother Jack are running an exhibition at Holborn’s Display Gallery. The exhibition, titled Inner City Ooz, features music, art, and performance, including a limited-edition zine comprised of poetry, unseen photos, and personal essays by the brothers. To mark the opening of the exhibition, they have created a “sound-based piece that maps out a subconscious world where memories have been recorded and sampled” where visitors are encouraged to interact with the display’s buttons and triggers “to alter and distort what the two have imagined.”

That wild imagination is what makes 6 Feet Beneath The Moon such a trip. Inspired by Gene Vincent, Fela Kuti, and The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, King Krule wanted to create a dark, post-punk, jazzy record that relied heavily on trip-hop standards to get itself across — and ultimately it’s that wobbling walk through genres that makes it stand out. Three-minute number “Easy Easy” exemplifies this with hip-hop-esque vocals that are spat slowly over equally hazy and noncommittal guitar. Half its run-time is used just to build up to the chorus where his voice peaks and a new guitar riff comes into play, much like a sleepy Dick Dale.

Over the pond in America, Willow Smith was embarking on her music career in 2010, too. Then at age nine, Will Smith‘s daughter dropped her first single “Whip My Hair” to the internet’s thunderous applause and gave us all headaches from trying to imitate her moves. It was random, it was ridiculous, and it was somehow irritatingly catchy.

A new star had been born.

Since then, Smith has released eight more singles–including 2011′s “Fireball” starring fellow female rapper Nicki Minaj and this year’s “Cuban Pete” featuring SZA–but has yet to put out an actual full-length album. Now at 13-years-old, she’s gone through new phases of music. She sampled Radiohead. She dropped a sultry R&B track. Now she’s taking her first swing at a cover.

There are two reasons “Easy Easy” is a successful track: Marshall’s accented drawl and the bare staccato notes of the guitar. Willow Smith kept the guitar doing what it does best and challenged Marshall’s unique style of singing. There are layers after layers of her sweet vocals, each one stacking up to create a totally different sonic experience that includes repeated lines and vocal flairs sparking off in the background. It’s dreamy and relaxing, but more in the vein of a PBR&B Adele than Julianna Barwick.

As she grows older, Willow Smith is becoming more in tune with what makes songs click. “Easy Easy” is no exception. From the text written about King Krule’s exhibit, it sounds like Willow Smith’s cover would do well on display there. Through laptop speakers alone, it already deserves that attention.


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