Pop musicians really don’t need a lot of frills to sound cerebral, and I like that psychedelic players Mitch & Millie are seemingly making a point of telling us that in their cover of “White Rabbit” this September. As much as I tend to loathe cover songs, especially those of tracks that are as legendary as this one is, there’s something to be said about what this is showing off within Mitch & Millie’s sound, and I would even argue that they are elements we would not have been able to notice nor appreciate had they been offered up in original material.
As an exhibition number, “White Rabbit” is perhaps the perfect song for this pair to be playing for us, as it allows for their sound to do things it can do better than most anyone around right now. This groove is moving and shaking like nobody’s business, which is a feature we didn’t find in the original version of this song as it was released back in the 1960s. We’re rocking with the unstable beat beneath the guitars, and yet there’s never any feeling as though we’re about to go off of the rails and away from the melodic footing enjoyed by our singer.
The guitar parts are inescapable and even downright suffocating in more than a couple of spots between the start and end of this track, but this isn’t something that the vocal isn’t able to withstand; to be frank, I think this singer is benefitting from all of the action she’s pressing up against, which cannot be said for every vocalist that tries to take on a song like “White Rabbit.” This is a pressure-filled dream, and still, it never sounds like a single bursting at the seams with indulgence whatsoever.
Purposely overwhelming and occasionally just a little more than what a lot of pop fans are going to be able to handle, “White Rabbit” as it’s reimagined by Mitch & Millie is a very credible listen this autumn and reason enough to give this duo a shot if you’re looking for smart, cerebral new music that presses the envelope as much as it can without losing its melodicism. There’s obviously a case to be made for psychedelic music being a niche market, but even if this is the case, there’s no denying the potential and reverence within this pair, especially when studying what the competition has to say.
