Covers polarize fans of both the original artist and the players picking up the song and making it their own, but in the case of Jeff Lake & Cellophane Flowers’ Beatles tunes, everyone might be in agreement that this is the right outfit to cover the rock n’ roll legends. Two of my favorite Beatles tracks “Within You Without You” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” appear together in a psychedelic medley out this season by Lake and his equally talented cohorts, and while I don’t normally care for artists trying to put their own stamp on material a significantly influential as this is, what we have here is simply too good to be ignored. Firm but tinged with an experimental vibe from start to finish, this is definitely the most provocative cover I’ve heard in a long time.
Jeff Lake & Cellophane Flowers didn’t want to create a straight replicate of either composition they’ve worked into the same track; instead, this feels like an entirely new sonic juggernaut inspired by the original material more than it is meant to purely cover it. Tonality rules over every other component of the song supremely, fleshed out in organic colors only accessible to listeners when the production style is left raw and rather punky by comparison to what a mainstream act would go with. The strings create a wallop that our singer alone can quell with his soothing lead vocal, illustrating much of the melodic yin and yang The Beatles mastered so early on in their campaign together.
This arrangement favors a consistent groove that the verses slide with throughout the course of the track, but despite the rather elaborate construction of the rhythm, nothing here seems to present much of a challenge for Lake as a singer. He’s got such an adept way with these words, none of which he penned himself, and instead of just echoing the emotional subtext of his source material, it’s quite evident that he’s installing something uniquely his own in the narrative, unconnected to the message of either song as they were originally presented back in the ‘60s. This is an artist with a lot of soul, and he isn’t afraid to let us hear that even when he’s crooning someone else’s lyrics.
For a boss Beatles cover that will turn you around on cover songs in general, Jeff Lake & Cellophane Flowers are your go-to in 2021. “Within You Without You / Tomorrow Never Knows,” as well as the rest of the group’s 2020 LP Penny Lane, doesn’t play by the same rules one would expect cover content to live and die by, and although the overall aesthetics of this piece are rooted in a distinctly retro concept, the story they help to tell feels very much in the here and now. I don’t often say this about acts I just got into, but Jeff Lake & Cellophane Flowers are the type of band I’d love to see their contemporaries try to be; they’re unfiltered and committed to the medium, and it shows in every note they play here.
Chadwick Easton