Bullet With Butterfly Wings covered by The Ghost And The Grace

Here is a real different cover of Bullet With Butterfly Wings by The Smashing Pumpkins. This cover is by The Ghost And The Grace (TGATG). I usually don't like when artists do covers of the Pumpkins because it always fails to pass even my lowest expectation standards since the Pumpkins are by far my favorite band of all time. I still have yet to purchase or even bother taking for free an album of artists that has done Pumpkins covers. To be honest and fair, it's because I have such a biased love for the original compositions that Billy Corgan put together with the Pumpkins. On the other hand, since I've gotten to work with Daniel Anderson quite a bit playing live in TGATG I've learned there isn't much that I don't like coming from Daniel and even with his other band Idiot Pilot. So when I heard this was posted, you can see why I was so anxious to give it a listen.

I noticed that it was that it's a little shorter than the original and the tempo is slower which gave me a fun project to compare songs back to back to see what was cut out. Only took one listen through each to realize that the guitar and drum solo duet (which was my favorite part of the original) is cut. But since TGATG is more focused on tasteful compositions and not about shredding, it really made sense to not include it.

After a while of listening, my favorite difference is that it really sounds like a TGATG song. With the banjo covering the melodies while the guitars and strings usually covering the background chords and/or tasteful effects. There are also hand claps and of course the infamous crash cymbal that Daniel loves putting in high powered choruses. Personally, I think it's a great accomplishment to cover the song and have it sound like your own 'sound' while still making it undeniably recognizable to the original. He even has a scream in there which both artists are both known bit for among their fans.

This version has a haunting and floaty sound while the original has more of an raw and edgier sound as most of you probably know. On the TGATG website Daniel mentions that he did this because fall is favorite season and that this fit the times and the upcoming holiday Halloween. With that said I think overall, this is job well done. Is this the first Smashing Pumpkins cover that I like? Well let's just say I guess it helps to have good artists cover good artists.

You can listen to it here but you can download it for free at the TGATG website. What are you waiting for? It's free!