Matilda Mård's decision to cover the classic 1934 Rodgers and Hart ballad "Blue Moon" didn't spring from late nights listening to Sinatra or Elvis, a superficial dive into a smokier era. It came, she says, from watching 80s TV series, Fame:Mård's first EP as Many Voices Speak, Away for All Time, out October 28 on Hit City USA, constantly borrows from this tension between pop and despair. She drowns every line and every hook in melancholy, flipping major chords into something mournful. "Blue Moon," an outtake from the record, doesn't waver or shake in the same way that Dominique Dunne's did, but it retains every bit as unexpectedly affecting. Listen to it below.
There's an episode where Dominique Dunne makes a guest appearance, just a few years before she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. She plays a girl from the street and she is singing "Blue Moon" on her audition for the music school. Even though it's staged as a failed audition, there was something in her shaky performance that unexpectedly moved me deeply. The cover is as much a tribute to the original song as it is a tribute to Dominique Dunne.
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Lead photo by Julia Mård.Follow Noisey on Twitter.