Fontaines D.C. cover The Beach Boys' 'Wouldn't It Be Nice'

Fontaines D.C. have shared a cover of The Beach Boys' classic track 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' for a new compilation project, InVersions, curated by Deezer. Also featuring on the collection is Irish singer-songwriter Orla Gartland, Arlo Parks, Alfie Templeman, BENEE, Dream Wife and more.

“We all know the music community has been hit hard by the pandemic, especially Indie artists who rely on live gigs,” Nigel Harding, Deezer’s VP of Global Artist Marketing, revealed in a statement about the release. “During this tough time, we wanted to do our part and offer support to Indie and Alternative artists with our new Inversions album. We gave each musician the freedom to recreate and add a fresh perspective on classic hits. I’d love for music fans from all over the world to discover some new favourites on our InVersions album.”

We recorded a version of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by The Beach Boys for @Deezer "Inversions". Listen to it here: https://t.co/Q7JZUwMUSa pic.twitter.com/IE2aRgdRbg

— Fontaines D.C. (@fontainesdublin) October 6, 2020

In their recent Hot Press cover story, Fontaines D.C. discussed being influenced by The Beach Boys – particularly ‘Your Summer Dream’, a track from their 1963 Surfer Girl album.

“Man, I remember being in Mexico when we were playing there,” Grian reflected in the interview. “I was walking down the street and I had a bottle of wine and I was just on my own out for the evening. I was listening to ‘Your Summer Dream’ and thinking, ‘If I had to have a Groundhog Day, this would be it!’ Walking down this one never ending street, listening to this song on ‘repeat’ for the rest of my life.”

“It’s nice that Brian Wilson was such a huge Beatles nerd as well,” he added. “They were definitely in direct competition for a few years. I actually prefer The Beach Boys to The Beatles. I love John Lennon but I prefer Brian to Paul McCartney for sure. He’s got more of kind of a voice.”

In a statement about their cover for InVersions, Fontaines D.C. noted that "covering a Beach Boys songs has always been a scary thing considering the genius arrangements, their playing [and] their harmonies."

"But it was always something quite intriguing and especially when we thought about it from the point of view of subverting the light-heartedness that they conveyed most of the time," they added. "So ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ we saw this kind of naive perspective towards love and marriage in the lyrics, and we were quite curious to see what would happen when you contrasted that approach with a darker musical palette. So we kind of slowed down the tempo and created a draggier tune for those lyrics to sit on top of. What came out of it is something that kind of reminds me a bit of The Jesus and Mary Chain and Rowland S. Howard.”

Listen to InVersions here, and order a copy of the Fontaines D.C. cover issue of Hot Press below: