Probabilistic Jukebox: "Never Talking to You Again" by Elf Power

Illustration titled "Pusillanimite" by Alexandre de Saillet from Les Enfants Peints par Eux-mêmes, 1842

Elf Power's 2002 covers album Nothing's Going to Happen is one that I like to put on every once in a while because there is something very "zen" about it. It takes songs from very different-sounding groups from the Bad Brains to the Tall Dwarfs, and it distills them down to their essential components. It doesn't have jarring dynamic shifts like some covers albums, but it doesn't become monotonous by smoothing down all the songs' rough edges, either.

Husker Du's classic acoustic punk number "Never Talking to You Again" is an odd pick for this treatment because the original is already elemental in its simplicity. But Elf Power takes a stab at it anyway - they keep the song's chugging tempo and rolling drums almost exactly the same, but they change a few key things. They strip out the crazed backing vocal that Bob Mould contributed in the original and replace the aggressive acoustic guitar with the kind of generic electric guitar sound you'd expect the song to have. Both of these changes are steps in the wrong direction, in my opinion. The one thing they do add makes the song worthwhile, though - the put a great acoustic solo in the middle of the song, where the Huskers' original just had an empty-sounding eight bars of strumming. It might not be a good enough reason for this cover to merit inclusion on the Probabilistic Jukebox, but I like that it doubles the odds of me hearing one of my favorite Grant Hart songs when I turn it on.

"Never Talking to You Again" by Elf Power