The Smiths Project

Shouldn't work but it does. Genius in fact.

Excerpts from The Guardian

Quote :

Janice Whaley might have a job and a toddler but that didn't stop her taking on a time-consuming project to reimagine every Smiths record. Luckily, the results are stunning

Quote :

Understandably, in an age where any note-strangling ninny can scream into the World Wide Abyss, this may fail to sound astounding – but Janice is no ninny and she certainly doesn't strangle notes. If anything, she's testament to just how charming, creative and arduous the modern tribute can be. While the last decade saw the rise of the cover as an ironic novelty, her versions are fuelled by something sincere: a passion for the songs that defined her life and a compulsion to make them all wonderfully hers.

From the soul-destroying Walmart job she quit after listening to Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now to the recent deaths of two friends that inspired her to turn again to music (a passion she had long neglected), Janice earnestly and honestly relates her life through songs which – as a fan – you hear anew. Sweet and Tender Hooligan goes from a jangle-fest to the song at the end of the world; Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others is dragged kicking and screaming into dystopianism; Still Ill burns with eerie slowness; This Charming Man becomes a ballad and if I Know It's Over – Morrissey's lament from the abattoir of love – wasn't enough to tear down the world of the broken-hearted before, Janice's rendition has Cupid turning the arrow on himself.

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Featuring no instruments at all, her arrangements are constructed entirely from layers of vocals using a dodgy old microphone and the Pro Tools production software left under her Christmas tree last year.

"Typically, every track has 20-30 layers of vocals or drums and they take about 20-30 hours each to complete," she explains over the phone while her three-year-old son plays loudly in the background. "That time is spread out over any time that I'm alone in the house or haven't got my 'Mommy' hat on. I've essentially given myself a part-time job's worth of a task. Without pay! What have I done?"

Full article with links to tracks below. A remarkable homage.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/oct/12/smiths-covers-project-janice-whaley

Tried a couple of tracks (This charming Man and Heaven Knows...)

Interesting and an admirable effort.....but it's not for me at all.

Glad I've heard it though

Thanks Mr_K