THE MONDAY CORRESPONDENT

I received a really nice e-mail the other day, and its author has very kindly allowed me to use its contents as the basis for a guest post:-

Your post on Temptation just thrilled me because it's my favorite New Order song of all time and I had never heard the 98 version or the live one you posted. Awesome. Thank you so much.


Since you like it so much I wanted to share two covers with you. They are both from a long gone band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania called The Affordable Floors. If you were into alternative music in the late 80's and early 90's and you lived in Pittsburgh you were a fan of the Floors. They were an amazing band and it really sucks that they never got any national or international recognition. They got signed to a major label and recorded an album called 1000 Days. I was doing college radio at the time and got a promotional pre-release cassette of this incredible album. When we tried to get more we were told that we got it by mistake and should not have it and that we should send it back. We didn't and I made a copy. On this album was an awesome cover of Temptation, which had become a staple at their shows. I was heartbroken when the label tanked and this album never got released. Then my copy was borrowed and never returned and I thought I would never hear it again.

They then put out an independent CD a few years later called "All The Things I Meant To Be" which included re-recorded versions of some of the songs from their unreleased album, and it included a new version of Temptation. I was so happy to have that, but even though it had been years since I'd heard the first version I always remembered that I seemed to like it better. A little while ago the drummer from the floors put up a web page where you could download 1000 Days since it had never had a proper release all those years ago. So I'm happy to now have both versions on my iPod. They both have their merits so I thought I'd send you both. Enjoy.

Sincerely

Don

I did a wee bit of research and found an official website devoted for The Affordable Floors.

Here's the covers as supplied by Don:-

mp3 : The Affordable Floors - Temptation (1000 Days version)
mp3 : The Affordable Floors - Temptation (All The Things I Meant To Be version)

It's interesting to hear what I reckon would have been an archetypical college-rock type of band's take on what was, after all a song that straddled the New Order that leaned heavily on Joy Division and the New Order that was focussed on the dance-floor.  They've turned into a radio-friendly anthem and to my ears it sounds a bit like The Psychedelic Furs when they went pop albeit with an American vocalist.  There's other times when it reminded me of Deacon Blue.....

I'm not 100% convinced by the covers, but I reckon there will be folk out there who will really like them and I'm sure there's the many fans of The Affordable Floors, like myself now getting on in life, who will be pleased to see them get an all too rare mention in the blogosphere.

Happy Listening.