Vistas – Adore You single review (Harry Styles Cover)

At some point, we’ve all asked the question ‘what song cover is better than the original?’, which often provokes some controversial responses. I love that the beauty of song covers is the way they are not designed to be compared in this way. They are designed to be edited and sculpted to fit the sound of the covering artist, so two separate pieces of art can be admired in their own ways: two pieces so diverse and contrasting that they almost shouldn’t even be titled the same, and the cover appears to simply pay homage to the original. 

From this outlook, I give you Vistas fun and brilliantly forged cover of Harry Styles’s beauty: Adore You, produced by Spotify for their very own Spotify Singles. 

Vistas are a band of a distinct sound, and an energetic one at that, one of which we saw their full potential shown in their debut album released earlier this year: ‘Everything Changes in the End’, which included two of their earlier singles and fan favourites ‘Tigerblood’ and ‘Retrospect’ and reached an impressive twenty-one in the UK Albums Chart for a newly signed artist. 

It’s comforting in a sense that Vistas have not tried to shift too far from their original upbeat, optimistic sound and have stuck to what they know and are evidently good at. That isn’t to say they are stuck in this stage and aren’t keeping us hooked, as Vistas have still been progressive with their sound and have clearly grown as a band since their first release ‘Sign Language’ back in 2016, not just musically, but as artists and with their entire individuality. 

This cover reflects just that for the three-piece, and it’s exciting to see the Edinburgh based band up there in the Spotify Singles list with some of the biggest names in music today. Their ‘Adore You’ cover showcases the very best of Vistas’s talent, giving us their typically animated guitar riffs and frontman Prentice Robertson’s unmistakable vocals but in a whole new light which we haven’t seen before from them by taking a well-loved hit and making it their own. 

If you aren’t familiar with the band already, this is a perfect gateway into growing to love their happy, dreamy sound through such an impressive, melodic cover which truly shows the bands identity. All-round it is a generally fun and lively take on Harry Styles’s 2019 hit, a version that makes you want to dance as opposed to the original, more laidback sound of the song. It’s vibrant, it’s high-spirited, and it’s a bold move from the band, but when it has worked in their favour so well, who can blame them for taking it? 

- Eve Cherrill

@evieeczx