Covers are tricky beasts. Covers of iconic songs by well-known artists, even more so. Either you do something new with it, inviting flak and ferocity from existing fans, along the lines of “what makes you think you can do better than this treasured original version,” or you stick to the script, and people then accuse you of gratuitously riding coattails and bringing nothing new to the table. You just can’t win! Or can you?
Omnesia’s take of Frank Zappa’s “Dirty Love” manages to find a third way, and remember that there was only one single from Over-Nite Sensation, and this wasn’t it, so perhaps only the real Zappa die-hards could ever find something to complain about in this do-over of a 50-year-old album track.
For the rest of us, this new version is a perfect balance of tribute and adventure, taking the swampy, slinky, groovy blues of the original and merely ramping up the vibe, adding much, losing nothing, shooting it through with some marvellously manic keyboard salvos and taking the guitar work to some squalling new heights. There is even a raft of beguiling and soulful backing vocals and incidental voices, which, as you will recall, was first delivered by The Ikettes, including Tina Turner herself.
The spirit of Zappa has been retained, but Omnesia seems to make it both even more Zappa-esque and yet totally their own, a heightened version of the original and a chance to put their own spin on it, inject it with their own personality, their own sonic DNA.
Covers rarely keep everyone happy, but this comes about as close as you could wish for.
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