Thanks to music blog Southern Souls and creative mastering studio Mojito, the world has met indie bliss in the form of a collaboration between The Elwins and Luke Lalonde of Born Ruffians fame. The two came together at the Verge Music Lab to record a skilled performance of Beyoncé’s “Countdown,” the first in a cover series called “The Mojito Sessions.” Continue reading »
Once again, 2011 saw Beyoncé release pop singles that united Top 40 listeners and blog-loving hipsters in mutual adoration. Perhaps the most beloved was “Countdown,” the joyful noise that spawned another classic Bee video. Now Sondre Lerche has covered it, as part of his annual holiday present where he covers songs of the past year (see also: 2010’s Owen Pallett and 2009’s Animal Collective covers). He describes it for Stereogum, where the track premiered: Continue reading »
‘The Best Ever’ series counts down our favorite covers of great artists.
We all know the reason everyone’s talking about Beyoncé this month: It’s the fifteenth anniversary of her debut solo album Dangerously in Love!
Okay, maybe that’s not the only Beyoncé news setting the internet aflutter these days – but it is the reason we initially decided to do this list. So it was extra nice of her to drop a surprise album with her husband, what’s-his-name, to give us something else to tie this into. In tribute, we’re writing this entire post from the Louvre.
There aren’t any Everything Is Love songs covered here, but we can’t imagine the first great “Apeshit” cover is far off. And every other facet of her career is represented, from the Destiny’s Child radio hits to her early solo pop jams to the more recent political tracks from Lemonade and beyond. Appropriately enough, the artists doing the covering represent an equally wide spectrum. I challenge you to find another list on the internet containing both serpentwithfeet and Reba McEntire.
So let’s start the countdown (heh) of the best B covers ever. All hail the Queen! Continue reading »
Sondre Lerche is a Norwegian singer-songwriter who is no stranger to the world of cover songs. Lerche has been releasing cover songs for well over a decade now, including a series where at the end of every year he releases a cover of one of that year’s big pop hits. With covers of Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Ariana Grande, Drake, Beyoncé, and Lady Gaga tunes, he’s created quite a name for himself in this niche alone. This year, he tackled the Miley Cyrus smash “Flowers.” Continue reading »
Follow all our Best of 2022 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.
The big story in 2022 covers came from a song that’s almost 40 years old: “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God).” After Kate Bush’s classic had its Stranger Things moment, every week we got a half dozen new covers. It’s been six months since the show came out, and they’re still coming! This entire list could have been “Running Up That Hill” covers if we’d let it.
We didn’t, and it isn’t. The song makes one appearance, as do a number of other trendy 2022 items: Wet Leg, GAYLE, and Beabadoobee; the latest Cat Power covers project; posthumous releases (Dr. John, Levon Helm); songs that tie into coming out of pandemic isolation.
But, as always, a joy of our list is all the covers that tie into nothing, and that you won’t find anywhere else. Doom-metal Townes Van Zandt? Bluegrass Eminem? Ska Eddie Murphy? Folk Björk? Psych-rock Groucho Marx? Those are just five of the fifty killer covers on this year’s countdown. So run up that road, run up that hill, run up that building, and read on at the link below.
Follow all our Best of 2021 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.
To come up with our year-end list, we listened to thousands of covers.
That’s not an exaggeration, or loosely throwing around “thousands” for effect. My iTunes tells me I personally listened to and rated 1,120 new covers in 2021. And I’m just one of a dozen people here. Many of those thousands of covers were very good! But “very good” isn’t good enough for our annual year-end Best Cover Songs list. So when we say these 50 are the cream of the crop, we mean it.
They, as usual, have little in common with each other. A few tie into current events: Artists we lost, social justice concerns, live music’s fitful return. Most don’t. But does a doom metal cover of Donna Summer really need a reason to exist? How about African blues Bob Dylan, New Orleans bounce Lady Gaga, or organ ballad Fleetwood Mac? Nah. We’re just glad they’re here.
So dive into our countdown below – and, if you want us to send you a couple hundred Honorable Mentions culled from those thousands, join the Cover Me Patreon.
– Ray Padgett, Editor in Chief