Album Responses

I'd like to do a (sort of) Exile in Guyville number on The Strokes' Is This It. Not a rewriting as much as a re-recording, though the former would be interesting. (Possible title: Not Quite.)

I started by putting everything up an octave, but that wasn't enough. That wouldn't be the Phair treatment. Some of the songs do sound good without Julian's baritone, though. Something to think about for karaoke and sing-alongs.

What Phair was doing was reimagining the slant of an artistic piece by turning it on its head. Changing the gender of the singer is a great way to do this (see The Chapin Sisters' remake of The Everly Brothers for a fantastic recent example). Phair went further, though, by rewriting. 

This makes me think about which artists and albums are most ripe for rewriting (lyrics) or reimagining in  some other way. It'd be cool to see a new Rubber Soul, perhaps from a woman's perspective. The Jackson Five could be turned into hip hop. Sarah McLachlan could be made into metal. Et cetera.