For our next Ball of Wax cover, Annie Ford beautifully deconstructs Medejin’s “World’s Fair.” The original – released as a single last summer, and featured recently on Ball of Wax 57 – is a driving deluge of layered guitars, vocals, and drums, awash in melody.
Being a string player, Annie chose to break down all those guitars and rebuild them as a string quartet. The simple, shuffling drum beat keeps the forward momentum but takes a back seat to the gorgeously intertwining cello, viola, and violins. Vocally, Annie stays true to Jenn Taranto’s original melody, but the overall feel is utterly its own thing. To my ears Annie Ford’s”World’s Fair” has a peacefulness to it, a calm remove from the core loss of the song, while the original communicates a sharper, more urgent grief.
Lucky us, we get to hear both versions this Friday night at Lo-Fi. Annie has mentioned she’ll be doing some live looping – a first for her, I believe – so we’re in for a unique treat.