It might not be cool to admit it, but I do have something of a soft spot for Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac covers, though, often strike me as being rather pointless, with The Corrs’ slightly faded carbon copy of ‘Dreams’ being an obvious case in point.
The Salt Flats clearly like Fleetwood Mac too, to the extent that they’ve made their second EP a collection of covers of their songs. There are some interesting choices, from the less obvious ‘Never Going Back Again’ and ‘Silver Springs’ to the so obvious they’re probably best left ‘Big Love’ and ‘Everywhere’.
According to the band’s version of events, they “experimented with some of the lighter songs and sounds. The drum machines and Omnichords worked with the simplicity of songs like ‘Never Going Back Again’ and the drones of the Harmonium, Eastern Reed Instruments and a few changes in rhythm took songs like ‘Big Love’ in slightly different direction.”
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To an extent, it works: on ‘Never Going Back Again’ and ‘Silver Springs’ the twin vocals of Katie and Cara complement one another very well, and do combine to achieve the same effect as Buckingham and Nicks… but then I can’t help but wonder what’s the point? They sound more like a tribute than a band in their own right. It’s only on ‘Big Love’ that salt Flats come into their own and stamp their own mark on the material, with the 80s drum beat and electro noodles proving quite a radical departure. Whether it’s entirely successful is another matter, but they do at least manage to change the songs without being sacrilegious, and credit is definitely due for that.
The Salt Flats on MySpace
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