Engage Your Summer Sadness With Covers by Jenn Wasner and Sylvan Esso 

By Ellie Shechet  |  June 19, 2015 | 5:15pm
Entertainment

Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner has been on tour with Sylvan Esso as Flock of Dimes, her solo project, and the group made a pit stop to perform a pair of gorgeous covers for the A.V. Club’s A.V. Undercover video series.

Wasner’s performance of Crowded House’s “Don’t Dream It’s Over,” with Amelia Meath on backing vocals, is a faithful, delicately modernized rendering of the 1986 hit, dreamy reverb hitting that happy-sad summer solstice sweet spot. But when Amelia takes the lead for a cover of Gillian Welch’s “Everything Is Free,” the real magic happens:

Maybe I’m just a sucker for Welch’s particular brand of anguished Americana, but shiiiit, these harmonies are really something else.

Sylvan Esso and Flock of Dimes are releasing both covers later this year as split singles, but the videos are worth a watch, if only for Meath and Wasner’s “dang we sound good” glow.

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