Some songs just seem destined to cross paths with a particular band. Crash, the classic by The Primitives, is one of those songs for Hayley and the Crushers.
The Crushers don’t bother trying to reinvent a song that was already doing just fine in 1988. The riff, the melody and that irresistible bubblegum-punk DNA are all still there, but the amp gets a solid kick. The guitars sound meaner, the drums hit harder and the whole thing gets a little more feral. The funny thing is, they’re not really playing it much faster. It’s the attitude that shifts.
The vocals change the mood too. Where Tracy Tracy sounded sweet, distant and almost carefree, Hayley Cain sounds far more defiant. Her “shut, shut your mouth” comes with less innocent charm and a lot more playful menace. And when the “na-na-na”s arrive, they stop being just a pop refrain and turn into a collective shout.
The video, naturally, has no intention of behaving either. Scrapyards, vans, slapstick humour and ridiculous poses turn Crash into a B-movie road trip that looks doomed from the start. The Weekend at Bernie’s reference lands perfectly, all filtered through the Crushers’ usual mix of camp, chaos and plenty of sparkle.
Best of all, it never feels like a cover done out of obligation. Hayley and the Crushers grab Crash, crank it up, mess up its hair a bit and drag it straight into their own world. By the end, it’s hard to believe the song hadn’t always been lurking somewhere in their glitter-punk universe.
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