Download This! scours the web’s dark corners for cool cover freebies. View past installments.

The way an audience responds to any artistic venture varies from pumped-up praise to, well, downright harsh criticism. The comment section over at Aquarium Drunkard - where you can hear J. Tillman covering Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night album in its entirety – is a pretty clear example.

Let’s face it, when covering an artist that is so revered, there is going to be a lot of flack. Amongst the negative naysayers, the top post burns: “Way to castrate it, Tillman.” Yet, skimming the comments further, you see a redemptive post from the Fleet Foxes drummer himself. He valiantly defends this cover album as “an expression of affection for the source material” and asserts that his renditions were what “felt honest.” Continue reading »