Target continues taking hits from the past and breathing new life into them to sell clothes and home goods. Ahh, capitalism. Their previous campaigns have taken on Nu Shooz's pop/R&B classic "I Can't Wait," Dee-Lite's de-groovy "Groove Is In the Heart" and Sylvester's mighty good "Mighty Real." This time around, they've tapped new R&B phenom Tinashe and producer DJ Cassidy to reproduce Tom Tom Club's oft-sampled number "Genius of Love."
Tinashe and Cassidy's version hews pretty close to the original, including the memorable synthesizer and guitar that makes the fun of the song just as infectious as ever. However, they do make some changes here and there that change up the dynamic. For starters, there are percussion breaks that occur every few measures that almost feel like they've been pulled out of a reggaeton song that kind of throw off the fun time. As well, the weird edits to the lyrics are a bit distracting. While we can forgive changing "jail" to "here" for the sake of making the song a commercial jingle, we can't fathom why nods to the musical legends that inspired the Tom Tom Club to create the song, including mentions of Kurtis Blow, Bohannon and Smokey Robinson were omitted. Ultimately, this cover isn't as fun as the previous Target revamps, but it's surely enough to keep people in their stores.
Take a listen to Tinashe and DJ Cassidy's revisit of "Genius Of Love" and let us know what you think of it in the comments.
