When indie folk bands cover dance music in new and exciting ways, I’m filled to the brim with emotion. The art of turning a synthesizer into something man-made is an underrated one. So often it’s done poorly by unpopular YouTube cover artists that when a band does it right, it will sometimes be overlooked. This is why I wanted to make certain that Trails and Ways gets credit where credit is due. Their cover of the Swedish pop sensation Miike Snow’s song Animal is nothing short of a party in my ears.

It’s hard to listen to a cover without comparing it to the original, but 30 seconds into this song, I completely forgot I was listening to a replication. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Miike Snow. But the way Trails and Ways transformed the poppy bleeps and bloops into woodblocks and hand-claps was an undertaking in which they succeeded. The song has been completely broken down and put together in a sense where you feel like you should be dancing at a county fair while your friends use old milk bottles and washboards as accompaniment. Listen to it. Then listen to the original!