Macha Loved Bedhead’s “Believe” turns Cher’s sadness and desperation up to 11

In Hear This, A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: Some of our all-time favorite covers.

Macha Loved Bedhead, “Believe” (2000)

Bedhead broke up in 1998, but that didn’t stop the group’s core brothers, Matt and Bubba Kadane, from making a one-off EP with the group Macha a couple of years later. That record, Macha Loved Bedhead, is full of pretty and challenging stuff, but the single best track on the whole record is—believe it or not—a cover of Cher’s 1998 mega-single “Believe.” Done in part using the tones of a telephone, Macha Loved Bedhead’s take on “Believe” is as sparse as Cher’s version is bombastic. The result is still pretty catchy, though it’s imbued with an air of desperate depression that’s much more Bedhead than Cher. It’s incredible how well the cover works, actually, with Macha and the Kadane brothers taking a silly single and making it entirely their own with just a little twist of their respective wrists. I’d rather listen to these guys wax rhapsodic about “life after love” anyday.