Kindness - Swingin’ Party

Minimalist rendition of The Replacements’ song: a synth line with arpeggiator that hums along throughout, backed up with a disco beat; nice vocal harmony, but that’s about it.

It may sound too simplistic at first, but the stripped-down approach provides another dimension to the song. ‘Swingin’ Party’ gets under your skin, in a good way, and is improved by repeated listens. Covers are rarely regarded with much sincerity, but when they are, they can eclipse the original.

That said, this won’t eclipse the original, but Moshi Moshi’s choice to release this as Kindness’s debut single is an interesting one. Either Kindness has nothing better up his/her/their sleeve than putting a dance groove to a Paul Westerberg song, or he/she/they have something else pending…

Since there is next to nothing about him (we’re pretty sure it’s a guy now) anywhere on the internet (seriously, try Googling him), there is real mystery in the air. It seems he recorded the B-side (a short slice of funk, akin to The Whitest Boy Alive) in a ‘snowbound Berlin apartment’ and has played two gigs. One in a London squat eviction party, one in Berlin.

Despite the quality of the single, we want more. And, after seeing a four-piece band in the video to the B-side, we’re not even sure who makes up Kindness. Even the singer’s face is obscured. Hopefully Moshi Moshi won’t keep us too long for answers, we may lose interest.