Is Madonna’s “Borderline” The Hip “It-Song” To Cover? – A Review Of Recent Renditions By The Flaming Lips And Counting Crows

“Borderline” stands as one of Madonna’s defining, early hits. In fact it was her first top-ten hit in 1984.  Now, 25 years later this song seems to be coming back in a big way with two recent, high-profile covers appearing within just the last few weeks.  Both versions are somewhat radical interpretations and both are strikingly different from the original source.    VERSION 1 – BY THE FLAMING LIPS w/ STARDEATH AND WHITE DWARFS – This version appears on an otherwise lackluster compilation of covers compiled to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Warner Brothers Records. “Covered, A Revolution In Sound: Warner Bros. Records,” finds current Warner Brothers signees covering classic Warner catalog tunes. (It’s initially only available from Amazon.)  The Lips’ cover of “Borderline” is easily the set’s only major highlight.  Considering most of the other covers on this record fail miserably, this cover in comparison seems like a downright revelation!  (You definitely want to miss the Used’s butchering of the Talking Heads’ “Burning Down The House” or Disturbed’s ham-fisted, awful version of Faith No More’s “Midlife Crisis.”  Interestingly, you may or may not want to hear Adam Sandler’s surprisingly respectable and straightforward version of Neil Young’s “Like A Hurricane.”)  Assisted by Stardeath and White Dwarfs, the Lips morph the dance song into a momentous, escalating attack.  The track starts with a tinkering, programmed beat.  Like a lullaby it gracefully welcomes you in with some sweetly innocent-sounding keyboards.  At the 1:06 mark, Wayne Coyne comes in and softly sings the first verse with a gentle sense of beauty. (He sounds really great here.)  Then the instrumentation takes over.  Instead of giving a chorus, the music swells and grows, enveloping you with its immensity.  Backed by pounding drums and a thicker, louder keyboard line, Coyne then delivers the second verse.  This then leads us to the version’s one and only chorus.  After that, the song gives way to a righteous guitar freak-out, built out of the original song’s defining riff.  It becomes very heavy and aggressive in the best ways possible, before it collapses down into a fading assortment of synthesized droning tones.  At about six minutes, it still leaves you wanting more.  It would have been nice if they’d done the chorus one more time in the heavier setting, but what the Flaming Lips, Stardeath and White Dwarfs have done is astounding.  They’ve taken a culturally ubiquitous song and somehow made it fresh, new and their own.  This is one of the most amazing covers I’ve ever heard, period.  You should download it as a single track and save yourself from the rest of the compilation.  VERSION2 – BY COUNTING CROWS – Last week, on their official website, Counting Crows announced their departure from their longtime label, DGC/Geffen. They also posted, free for download their cover of “Borderline,” recorded live at The Royal Albert Hall.  It’s a nice free-bee for any hardcore fan of the band, but it’s a rather strangely country-rock reading of the song.  Sure, since it’s a live track, they didn’t have access to the nifty studio gadgetry employed by the Flaming Lips, but it seems rather anticlimactic.  (Counting Crows have always been rootsier and more organic, so they probably wouldn’t have used such hi-tech gadgetry, anyway.)  Sure, their version is more true to the song’s verse and chorus structure, but Adam Duritz twangs up the tune a little too much and makes his once great ensemble sound-like a third-rate version of the Band.  Such a different reading could have been more interesting.  Think about what Madonna did to her brother-in-law, Joe Henry’s blues-flavored composition, “Stop,” when she morphed it into “Don’t Tell Me.”  Counting Crows seem half awake, like they are just plowing through a cover.  It’s too bad.  They are still a great band, but as their last album, "Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings" proved, they are better these days when they let themselves rock out.  All the best to them as they enter the indie universe.  “August and Everything After” and “Recovering The Satellites” are still really great, important records.  It would’ve been nice to hear that kind of fire here.       VERDICT: The Flaming Lips win this one hands down!!! What’s your opinion?  Do you agree or disagree?  Please post your opinions below.