Earlier this year I confessed my love for “Like a Prayer,” and I’ve very recently developed a moderate music-crush on Lavender Diamond. Which means I was quite excited to see that they have undertaken a cover of the 80s classic for their part in a Madonna covers project called Through the Wilderness from Manimal Vinyl.
Like a Prayer – Lavender Diamond
I heard about it from Paper Thin Walls who rather perfectly captured my own feelings: “you’ve got to give the band credit for knowing which track from Madge’s past would best suit their brand of quasi-spiritual, feel-good chamber-folk.” It doesn’t improve on the original (how could it?) or radically alter it (why would you want that?) – it just gives you a genuine moment of perspective on what this song sounds like to the millions who sing it to themselves on any given afternoon. And so we see that shorn of its grandiosity, it loses none of its power.
Through the Wilderness is due out at the end of the month, and they’ll be donating a portion of the profits to the Raising Malawi charity. In addition, Lavender’s Diamond’s full-length Imagine Our Love came out in May, and once I give myself some more time to listen to it in full, I’ll probably post a review.