Two sides of Lua

It's funny how a song can be played seemingly the same way and yet convey a whole other emotion than its counterpart. Earlier today I was listening to the Red Hot compilation Dark Was The Night (2009), an indie folk/rock who's who of the nest and brightest. Although it has a few bouncy moments, the overall feel of the album is low key and cozy. The songs loosely string together as if they're dozing by a fireplace. That being said, both discs back to back might be a bit much, but as a whole the album is consistently well played. The song that conjures up this post is "Lua", performed here by Gillian Welch and its composer Conor Oberst. Oberst had originally featured the song on his proper band's landmark record I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005). The Bright Eyes version is devastatingly beautiful, hopeless in its Sunday morning regrets. Done as a duet on Dark Was The Night, gives the song a surprising level of optimism. While the Bright Eyes version is played on a single acoustic guitar in a most restrained fashion, the Welch/Oberst version is looser and more playful in its strumming - featuring more plucking and picking. While the original is more of a single person's reflection on the events which are isolated and cold, the remake is warmer and accepting of the trials set forth in the storyline. On paper, the two versions are performed in a similar fashion, but the final execution of both is quite different.