Mope-tastic! The Smiths vs. Lana Del Rey in This Charming Video Game.
1980s mope meets 2010s mope when mashup artists The Reborn Identity combine Morrissey’s vocals from This Charming Man with the backing tracks of Lana Del Rey’s Video Games. The end result is perfect for sitting in a hotel bar and nursing a bourbon, and I mean that in the best possible way.
Mondo thanks to Duarte da Silva for the find!
2 replies on “Mashup of the Day: “This Charming Video Game” (The Smiths vs. Lana Del Rey)”
Oh. God. No.
I kind of like Video Games for what it is, but they’ve chosen the least mopey Smiths song ever as a mashup ingredient. Take Morrissey’s singing and yelps of delight away from the jangling joy of Marr’s guitar and stick it in this? You’ve got musical quicksand.
Bad, bad, bad choice. And I’m saying that as someone who loves this.
I agree with MaryL. I wouldn’t say it’s terrible, but I agree they could have chosen a more mopey Smiths song (I mean, there are so many to choose from) to go with the music that it seems an odd choice to use ‘This Charming Man’. Sometimes really cheerful-sounding lyrics mashed with a melancholy tune can evoke something haunting (and the beginning of this song I think it works, it recontextualizes Morrissey’s lyrics in a way that I wouldn’t have heard it without the music of ‘Video Games’ backing it), but I think it starts to diverge a little too much further into the song.
Still, I love the Smiths and I’m quickly finding myself falling in love with Lana Del Rey, so I can’t say it’s all a bad thing. đ