Rule # 1 of cover versions: Do the unexpected.
I’m Going Down is basically a Bruce Springsteen album track that became the sixth single lifted from his wildly successful Born In the USA record over a year after the album’s release. And it seems like an odd choice for a band like Free Energy, even if Vampire Weekend got there first.
The Philadelphia five-piece recorded the track for a tour-only 7” split with Titus Andronicus (who contribute an excellent version of Television Personalities’ Anxiety Block), the band’s first new music since its March debut album, Stuck On Nothing.
Free Energy has drawn frequent comparisons to the power pop of The Cars and this is where the genius in its choice of cover comes. The band may have unearthed a previously unsuspected similarity between the Springsteen song and The Cars’ hit Just What I Needed. It’s there in the jagged opening riffs and as the drums kick in you can almost hear Benjamin Orr’s nasally voice sing, “I don’t mind you hanging out”.
It is a nice idea but there’s more to this take than sly similarities. Free Energy strips the original of its swirling psychedelic organ and Clarence Clemmons’ rocking sax, giving I’m Going Down a much rawer feel.
Instead of Springsteen's earnest blue-collar blues, we get singer Paul Spranger’s snide skinny jeans garage rock and the song becomes the tragic teen anthem that the Boss could never have delivered.
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