Simian Ghost returned in January 2013 with a smart new cover of David Bowie’s Be My Wife. Released as a free download on Sound Cloud, the cover gives the classic track Simian Ghost’s unique take on it, coinciding with the return of new material from Bowie himself with upcoming single, Where Are We Now, and album, The Next Day.
The Swedish indie-pop band worked on the cover track at the behest of Mojo Magazine, but for some reason the arrangement with them never saw the light of day, so Simian Ghost have put it up for free download. Not the best story for the magazine or the band, but all the better for the rest of us as we get a cool new free download to add to our track listings.
Following on from the acclaim they received for their album, Youth, which included stand-out singles, Wolf Girl and Automation, the cover release comes as they put out new EP, Autumn Slowmo. They’re a band that can be a bit hit and miss when it comes to their material, but the hits definitely outweigh the negatives and they deliver some very impressive tracks.
The cover of Be My Wife is crisp with a stripped pop-summer reworking of the lesser known Bowie song, with some mental drums and some stunning sliding synth. The original song has much heavier guitar and vocals that sound more like The Jam than they do David Bowie. The Simian Ghost version gives it a very modern feel, while also hooking into some of the are elements of Bowie’s Berlin material, which was more industrial than his previous releases, as well as the more modernistic pop of China Girl.
Get the free download of Simian Ghost’s cover of David Bowie’s Be My Wife below:
The release of the cover was a great prelude to the brilliance of what was to come from Bowie and his new material, which instantly shot the Ziggtron into the number 1 spot for both the album, The Next Day and number 6 in the UK singles chart for Where Are We Now. Find out more about his massive contribution to the music industry with our David Bowie infographic, which contains the chronology of his singles and album chart success.
