It was one of those pop songs you couldn’t escape back in 2000, when the genre was at its peak. Pure Shores by British group All Saints has lost none of its catchiness today, but it has acquired a certain patina. This dreamy, syrupy atmosphere now resonates with a harmonious nostalgia, cloaked in millennium aesthetics.
Now, Swiss shoegaze/dream pop band Moonpools has taken Pure Shores and injected it with their own sound, with great respect for the original. The result is breathtakingly good.
Moonpools’ cover version of Pure Shores celebrates its exclusive premiere today on Negative White:
Recorded in the rehearsal room, produced and mixed by the prolific guitarist Matthias Gusset, the cover shortens the wait until the band releases new music at the end of the year. Singer and guitarist Marcie Nyffeler explains: „We wanted to cover a song that wasn’t too recent and that sounds quite different from the music we usually make.“ The choice fell on the catchy Pure Shores, one of Nyffeler’s favourite songs from her childhood.
Of course, at first glance, Pure Shores is miles away from Moonpools’ sound. But at its core, it’s a song with irresistible harmony and a gentle melody. The production has a dreamy quality. And Moonpools’ music can be described in the same way, even if the melancholy is much more prominent. But congenial songs like Never Mind from last year’s EP Hide and Seek are not far removed from Pure Shores in their essence.
Janosch Troehler
And so Moonpools don’t have to reinvent the wheel: their interpretation of Pure Shores is gentle and sounds incredibly natural. If you didn’t know better, you might think the song came straight from their pen. Instead of galactic synth decorations, the band lays a foundation of gritty shoegaze guitars, creating wistful textures that stretch into infinity. But as always, the focus is on Marcie Nyffeler’s magnificent performance, which bathes Pure Shores in melancholy.
Cover songs are a double-edged sword. They are often lazy or try too hard, losing out badly to the original. But when it works, when the mix is right, they can conquer the world. The most famous example of this is Bob Dylan’s All Along The Watchtower, which Jimi Hendrix literally made his own.
Moonpools’ Pure Shores is equally captivating. It won’t erase All Saints from collective memory, but this cover will open many doors for the band and invite people to discover their excellent sound.
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