One STEP too far. Oh boy.

Covers. Too many pop acts fall in this trap. Sometimes, amazing (more-or-less) known masterpieces are brought back to life, others are celebrated, others are re-arranged in the beautiful world of pop covers. Some others are just killed.

Today, the pop group STEPS have released, for the Deluxe version of their come back album Tears on the Dancefloor, a cover version of the wonderful, and not-so-well-known, Dancing with a Broken Heart by the talented Delta Goodrem.

We absolutely get the reason behind this choice, it fits the theme of the album perfectly. When we read about it, this morning, we were even excited about this.

And then the reality check.

What have they done to this. Obviously they weren't going to try to top Delta's vocal ability, and that it is fine. But the production and the vocals? First of all, the single version of the song did not need any re-work. Instead they seemed to have chosen something more similar to the album version (from the lovely Child of the Universe) but that's the least of the problems. The voices just don't fit the song. The poor guys are left there with echoes that shouldn't have been there, and the girls all together just turn the chorus into a karaoke version. The verses are ok.

And then the disaster.

Towards the end two things bring you tears on the dancefloor and leave you dancing with a broken ear.

A vibrant and surprising daftpunk-esque mix of the guys' (?) voices before leading onto the scariest thing in a pop song: a key change. That was awkward. It was very difficult to go till the end of this.

Hey, the song itself manages to stay good, but this is painful, people. Will it work in the charts? Well, of course we wish them all the best. Do we want to hear more of this? Oh hell no, honey. More Scared in the Dark and less of these covers, please!

Listen:

This?

Or this?

Y'all make your choice.