Jun 052020
 

Off the Beaten Path looks at covers of songs from a less popular era in an artist’s career.

joni mitchell in the 80s

The ’80s were a markedly confusing and dark time for many of the music world’s more established and beloved artists. The new decade brought a seismic shift in pop sights and sounds that included the arrival of “The Second British Invasion” in the U.S., featuring the likes of Duran Duran, Eurythmics and Culture Club. This guy called Prince began his reign/rain, and Madonna Louise Ciccone launched her complete world takeover. And oh yeah, there was this other thing, a behemoth called MTV that took near complete control of music culture (as well as my own teen brain). The garish, glossy videos they showed 24/7 became as crucial to an artist’s success as radio airplay. And so, like some musical equivalent of Logan’s Run, any musician over 30 suddenly seemed genuinely old indeed. The acoustic sounds that had been so mega and pervasive only a handful of years before all of a sudden sounded criminally dated. Continue reading »

Mar 262019
 

“Covering the Hits” looks at covers of a randomly-selected #1 hit from the past sixty years.

love will never do covers

We continue our week-long series of features on every 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with one of the biggest pop singers of the past thirty years: Janet Jackson. She’s sold over 100 million records, has an entire Wikipedia page devoted to everyone she’s inspired, and – most importantly for this series – had ten #1 hits. So, to tweak the usual “Covering the Hits” formula a bit, I limited the randomizer to one of those ten. And it picked “Love Will Never Do (Without You),” the Rhythm Nation 1814 standout that turns 30 this year.

Despite being a smash at the time and a hit with an enduring legacy (Pitchfork named it the 27th best song of the 1980s just a couple years ago), “Love Will Never Do” has been covered less than you might think. Once you eliminate the million sound-alike covers and karaoke instruments, Spotify only boasts a handful of covers, and YouTube not many more. But we dug deep, to bring you the best covers out there. Continue reading »

Oct 102012
 

Tom Krell, AKA How To Dress Well, has been on every Pitchfork readers’ radar for the past couple of years.  His ethereal, R&B influenced music is more concerned with textures and mood than a hook or melody. His latest, Total Loss, has been met with critical praise and focuses around personal losses Krell has faced.  Fittingly, Krell has covered Janet Jackson‘s 90s hit “Again” for the Total Loss Bonus 7″. Continue reading »

Dec 072011
 

Every Wednesday, our resident Gleek Eric Garneau gives his take on last night’s Glee covers.

In “Hold on to Sixteen,” New Directions and their rival glee club the TroubleTones compete in the Sectionals competition. Meanwhile, Quinn (Dianna Agron) plots to get Shelby (Idina Menzel) fired and an old friend returns to McKinley High.

Just last week I was thinking about how, in the future, we’ll be able to look back and pinpoint lackluster Glee episodes with an alarming degree of certainty based solely on the presence of Sam Evans (Chord Overstreet), a character who appeared only in season two, which seems generally agreed-upon as the worst of Glee‘s output to date. It should be no surprise, then, that when Sam returns to the show this week he brings with him a very season two-styled episode that feels the need to rush through a whirlwind of plot points without really doing justice to any of them. Even though “Hold on to Sixteen” is one of those special “competition” episodes that brings plots to their culmination by design, everything about it feels so hurried that nothing really has a chance to land – it’s 20 minutes of plot, then 20 minutes of performances, then a tacked-on happy ending. Honestly, I did not enjoy it. Continue reading »

Nov 042011
 

It was a sad day when Brooklyn’s favorite electronic indie trio, Mobius Band, decided to go on hiatus. But thankfully at least one of its talented members – guitarist and vocalist, Ben Sterling – is still making music, albeit under a different name with new band members. Sterling, bassist Melissa Metrick, and drummer Ian Ainley comprise indie pop band Cookies. If the name isn’t appealing enough (who doesn’t like cookies?), just let the music speak for itself. Cookies’ creative cover of R&B veteran Janet Jackson’s “Love Will Never Do (Without You)” will leave you hungry for more – guaranteed. Continue reading »

Sep 302011
 

This Week on Bandcamp rounds up our favorite covers to hit the site in the past seven days.

Today’s sort-of theme: stripping back big songs. Whether that’s Sonic Youth burners or T-Pain travesties, most of these songs take big ideas and pull them back for intimate performance. Except, you know, when they don’t. Continue reading »