Cover and Original : Such Great Heights

It seems like the Postal Service are the people to cover. There's a lot out there, and a number of well known and excellent musicians have gone and covered what is arguably their best known song, Such Great Heights.

Iron & Wine's fantastic cover, which was featured on the Garden State Soundtrack, is, in my opinion, the best version, one that surpasses the original (but not by much.) Thus we fall into two camps - there's the acoustic-indie version of the song, and the pop-electronic versions, or ones that emulate either Iron & Wine or the Postal Service. Benjamin Costello falls within the first camp, as does the Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer, while The Wrong Trousers, Rilo Kiley, Matt Nathanson, MIT Logarhythms. Ben Folds sort of falls into his own category.

Why is this song covered so much, with such a limited number of versions? I chalk this up to the original, which is a very sweet and romantic song, which has gotten a lot of exposure through things like its use in Garden State and numerous television shows.

Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Amanda Palmer
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Ben Folds
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Benjamin Costello
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - The Dresden Dolls
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Iron & Wine
Bent/Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Matt Nathanson
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - MIT Logarhythms
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Rilo Kiley
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - Umass Dynamics
Such Great Heights (The Postal Service) - The Wrong Trousers
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service

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One

A year ago today, after some contemplation, I started off on this little experiment of a music blog. One year later, 425 posts and a total of 121,433 and 143,160 page visits (somewhat less unique visitors - this number is low, because I added on tracking a couple months after I started.) I'd say this is a success. The site has really grown over the past couple of months, and I've tried a number of features, such as the Cover and Original, Acoustic and Original, Live and Original, Artist Evolution, 80 Bands Around the World, Artist Comparison and a couple others. Some of those I haven't kept up with, but it's been a fun ride thus far.

The name Carry You Away came from a couple of songs, most notably Cary Brother's song Who You Are and Rilo Kiley's The Angels Hung Around. The idea was that music carries one away while listening. I liked the idea when I heard Who You Are, and it stuck.

From The Angels Hung Around:

"...'Till the angels hung around
as they carried me away."

From Who You Are:

"...You try to, but you can't move
As the windows crash around you
No one there to carry you away"

My main mission here is to highlight music that I like. Over the past year or so, my tastes have grown considerably, and I've found that there's a lot of stuff out there that I like. I've become a more competent reviewer and writer, partially because of the amount of writing that I've had to do for this site, and my tastes in music is more refined. I've met artists, taken tons of pictures, and found hundreds of new artists and songs that I never would have come across otherwise.

So, thank you to everyone for making the site a success, and for hearing what I've got to say about things.

Beginnings - Chicago
Thirty One Today - Aimee Man
One Week - Barenaked Ladies
One (Blake's Got a New Face) - Vampire Weekend
One Good Year - Slaid Cleaves

Who You Are - Cary Brothers
The Angels Hung Around - Rilo Kiley

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