Feist and Constantines offer "Islands in the Stream" cover :: Music News :: Articles

Winking covers of cheesy '80s tunes by established indie artists are a dime—or, on Amazon, $18.97 new and $8.99 used—a dozen these days. Still, Feist and Constantines' cover of Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s 1983 hit "Islands in the Stream" is really quite stunning. With nary a bit of cheek, they've stripped the song down to the quietly earnest acoustic slow-jam it should have always been. Better still, Bryan Webb and Leslie Feist sound like they actually wanna make love to each other, which is not the impression we get from this chummy, vintage Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton performance…:

…or, thank God, from this 2006 duet between Kenny and Carrie Underwood:

The cover, currently streaming at the Arts & Crafts website, joins an original Constantines track on their Islands in the Stream EP, out now. The band's Kensington Heights LP was released yesterday in Canada and hits the States on April 29th. Ah huh.