Another day, another Arcade Fire cover of a classic local track. As the Canadian sextet’s Reflektor tour continues toward Glastonbury, they’ve picked back up their tradition of doing covers with some local significance. Saturday night in London, just a day after covering Echo and the Bunnymen’s “The Cutter,” they did a rousing, masked rendition of the Smiths’ “London.”
According to Arcade Fire Tube, who also snagged the audio, Will Butler handled lead vocals on the track and hey, for a Texan, he handles Morrissey’s Mancunian accent fairly capably. The whole thing’s relatively straightforward, stripping away the original’s jangly disaffection in favor of some insistent drumwork and barked gang vocals. They’ve played a whole host of covers on this tour, but this is one of the best yet.
There’s a scream-filled fan video above, but if you’re looking for a better audio recording, there’s a Soundcloud stream below.
