Thom Yorke just released a new slowwwwww remix of "Creep"

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Originally published at: Thom Yorke just released a new slowwwwww remix of "Creep" | Boing Boing

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That was just… painful. Definitely not an enjoyable experience for me, but who knows, maybe others like this sort of thing.

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Someday I might be in a mood to listen to that version all the way through.

Today is not that day.

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The hot thing right now is to take a popular song, slow it waaaay down. It is almost always gratuitous nonsense. I don’t think I’ve listened to a single one and thought it was good. Maybe I am just old and cantankerous. Or maybe I’m a simpleton who needs a fast paced driving beat.

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I’m… not clicking that.

Here’s an excellent example of how to do a ‘slowed down cover’ song well:

I like that version just as much as I like the original White Stripes tune…

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I like it.

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Some music just can’t be slowed down

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If the goal was to get us to hate Creep as much as he does, mission accomplished.

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LOL. I’ve never heard that before. I want to hear a Mr Plinket from RedLetterMedia do a version - “…In your fucking faaaaccceeeee.”

I remember in college my roommate had a song making fun of techno, which I liked. I thought it was by Helmet, but I fail to find the song I am thinking about.

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The original version of Seven-Nation Army is 122bpm, this version is 92 – 3/4 the original tempo

Creep is 91bpm, this one is 43 – less than half the original tempo.

I imagine the scale of the difference has an effect with songs you know - your brain has expectations about how fast specific notes arrive, and this rendition of Creep just messes with them too much.

(I estimated the speed from an online tapping tempo tool, so they might be off a little. I’m a crappy drummer.)

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You make an excellent point; tempo matters greatly.

IMO, Creep is a song that’s already ‘slow tempo’ which does not lend itself well to most alternative interpretations. Here’s the version that comes closest to doing the original justice without ruining it:

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Almost certainly not what you’re thinking of (what sane person could mix up Helmet and the Milkmen), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t leave this here:

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But sometimes, if you slow down the right song enough, it can be transformative, and in my opinion, transfixing…

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Wanna hear something cool? Play them together.

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What the hell am I doing here?
The sad part is that he couldn’t be bothered to re-record it slower, he just time-stretched it and it sounds awful because of it.

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Thanks for this one! I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoy Eliza Doolittle’s music.

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De nada!

:slight_smile:

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I think you can do it successfully. You just need to put more of a spin on it than slowing it down. The version of Seven Nation Army that Melizmatic posted did this very nicely (even if it wasn’t that much slower).

Just slowing down the mix as Yorke apparently did here is little more than annoying. (I admit I couldn’t listen to more than a few seconds of that.)

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I have heard that one!

I dunno… it reminds me of anbiant electronica… not really my thing, but I’m glad you enjoy it.

Right. There have just been two examples recently on BB which I don’t think worked at all. YMMV. That SNA one was much, much better and was way more than just a “slowed down version”. It had some style to it.

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This needs to be paulstretched