Annie Ford’s original recording of her song “Ain’t No Place” (which, it turns out, was written by drummer Matthew Manges) strikes that mythic sweet spot between the composed and the seemingly found; the song feels like it’s been around forever and you MUST have heard it a million times (like the way a Creedence song must have sounded when first released), while still bearing the personal stamp of its author.
By more or less not fucking with the actual song at all, Julia Massey’s cover version shows that modern pop/indie/electronica benefits greatly from incorporating certain traditional song structure. In this case, Julia’s version strikes a balance between the classic (using the folk musical language of the original song) and the modern (the production).
And whereas Annie sounds like she’s a little too deep in redneck territory (with the Bayou accompaniment seemingly a reference to where she feels she belongs instead of where she is), Julia’s version sounds like she’s at a bad art school party or a Manhattan sex dungeon, with (what sounds to me like) tubular bells in the arrangement reinforcing the horror-vibe undertone.
Arguably, Julia’s biggest departure from Annie’s original comes with how she sings the refrain. Whereas Annie sings her refrain as a declarative epiphany, Julia sings it with a seemingly self-aware smirk as if she should have known better than to hit this party up in the first place. And this, my friends, is one solid approach for covering a song: making it seem like a different person experiencing the same thoughts in a drastically varying setting.