Dec 152017
 

Follow all our Best of 2017 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

best covers 2017

Year-end lists are a time to look back. That’s something we’ve been doing a lot of this year.

See, we turned ten years old in 2017 – practically ancient in internet-blog terms – so we’ve indulged in what we feel is well-earned nostalgia. At the beginning of the year, each of our writers picked the ten most important covers in their life (see them here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here). We even listed the ten most important covers in Cover Me‘s life, from the song that inspired the site to our very first Best of the Year winner.

Then, to cap things off, in October we commissioned a 25-track tribute to the cover song itself – which you can still download for free. We love the covers everyone contributed so much, incidentally, that we didn’t consider them for this list. It’d be like picking favorite children – if you had 25 of ’em.

Oh, and have I mentioned I wrote a book? … What’s that you say? I mentioned that constantly? Well, I’m quite proud of it. It’s called Cover Me: The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time and it makes a great Christmas gift and – ok, ok, I’ll stop. You can find plenty more about it elsewhere.

Suffice to say, there’s been a lot of looking back this year. And we hope you’ll indulge us this one last glance rearward before we leap into 2018. Because if it’s been a hell of a year for us, it’s certainly also been a hell of a year for the cover song in general. Some of this year’s list ranks among the best covers we’ve ever heard, period. So dig in, and thanks for your support this past decade.

– Ray Padgett
Editor-in-Chief

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Jun 122017
 
phantogram hole cover

Phantogram has yet again crafted a super chill cover of an inherently frantic song. Their recent cover of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi” features a down tempodrum beat and Sarah Barthel’s silky smooth vocals which combined, result in a hypnotic haze. They adopt a similar approach to Hole’s “Violet”.

Gone is the angst ridden scream singing of the original. Courtney Love’s passionate, off-key, and messy delivery is replaced by Barthel’s similarly passionate, but beautifully precise and ethereal take on the song. The band sits at polar opposites as well. Love’s band is all in with as much rock angst as can be mustered, whereas Barthel’s band adopts a decidedly relaxed accompaniment with easy guitars and mallets on the drums. Continue reading »

Sep 302016
 
Fugees

They say nostalgia works in 20-year cycles, and this year the music of 1996 has been in the media a lot. And if you believe the music blogs, it turns out 1996 was a truly groundbreaking year for every possible genre. Over at SPIN: “The 96 Best Alternative Rock Songs Of 1996.” Complex: “Best Rap Songs of 1996.” Junkee: “Ten reasons 1996 was a great year for dance music”. Loudwire: “10 Best Metal Albums of 1996.” Red Bull Music: “1996: Why it was a great year for pop”. Suck it, 1995! (Kidding; similar articles were of course written last year too.)

We’ll be honest: 1996 was not some magical, pioneering year for cover songs. It was also not a terrible year. It was just, you know, another year. There’s no overarching theorem of 1996’s cover songs that wasn’t true in ’95 or ’97. But even so, Cover Me wasn’t around in 1996, so we never made a Best Cover Songs of 1996 list (our first year-end list came in 2009, with the Kings of Convenience’s “It’s My Party” topping it, and you can catch up on all the lists here). So we decided, before the year ends and we take our look at the best covers songs this year, why not take a nostalgic rewind and do 1996 just for fun, twenty years too late. Continue reading »

Dec 082011
 

Quickies rounds up new can’t-miss covers. Download ‘em below.

Last year, ex-Luna bandmates Dean & Britta released 13 Most Beautiful…Songs For Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests. It featured songs inspired by the Factory scene and a cover of Nico’s “I’ll Keep It with Mine” (itself a Bob Dylan cover). Now there’s a slightly more fleshed-out remix circulating, drawing more attention to a beautiful disc that flew under the radar.
MP3: Dean & Britta – I’ll Keep It with Mine (Scott Hardkiss Remix) (Bob Dylan cover) Continue reading »

Sep 142010
 

Celebrities have finally caught the “Bad Romance” covers train, and only about six months after everyone else! No matter. There’s plenty of room on the Gaga Express!

First up is Joseph Gordan-Levitt aka. Arthur (Inception) aka. Tom Hansen ((500) Days of Summer) aka. Tommy Solomon (3rd Rock from the Sun). His performance comes from a summer benefit show he threw with his production company hitRECord. It’s solo. It’s electric. It’s fun.

Courtney Love’s live performance is more funny than fun. She didn’t bother to learn the lyrics, but that doesn’t stop her from making some up! The rest of Hole tries to guide her, but as the world well knows, there is no controlling the Love-machine. Continue reading »