Dec 172021
 

Follow all our Best of 2021 coverage (along with previous year-end lists) here.

best cover songs of 2021

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

NEXT PAGE →

Apr 152021
 
memoryhouse beatles

It’s been a long time since we heard from dreampop duo Memoryhouse. In fact, the last time they appeared on these pages, their cover of the Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year” appeared on our Best Covers of 2012 list. Yes, 2012.

One reason for the long absence is they both got real-life jobs. They weren’t sure the band was broken up, but they weren’t sure it wasn’t broken up either. But the pandemic led them to a source of renewed inspiration: The Beatles. It turned into the five-track EP Mania (as in, Beatle-), out now. Continue reading »

Dec 212012
 

Adele dominated the cover song landscape in 2011, but Two-Aught-Twelve saw no similar galvanizing figure. Yes Lana Del Rey got covered a lot, but Leonard Cohen and Arcade Fire also seemed to garner an unexpected landslide of great covers (and speaking of landslides, so did Fleetwood Mac). “Call Me Maybe” was a huge hit that didn’t lead to much in the way of classic covers, and few seem to have even bothered attempting the Korean raps on “Gangnam Style.”

Which means that cover songs in 2012 were more diverse, ambitious, and left-field than ever before. A given YouTube search or Hype Machine browse would be as likely to turn up forgotten hits or underappreciated songwriters as it would the latest Top 40 smash. Find a sampling of all the diversity in Cover Me’s official Best Cover Songs of 2012 countdown. Start with #40-31 on the next page, and check back daily as we’ll be adding more til we hit #1.

Jan 062012
 

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

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve checked in with the covers popping up on Bandcamp, but from the looks of it, the good material didn’t stop over the holiday break. So in lieu of the bedroom acoustic songs we often hear, we cherry-picked out some more thoughtful, complex productions from the surplus. Download ’em all below. Continue reading »

Jan 042012
 

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

In honor of the new year, Canadian dream-poppers Memoryhouse covered the Zombies’ inspiration anthem “This Will Be Our Year.” The duo posted, “I hope this song helps motivate you to lose 5 pounds, stop smoking, and watch less reality T.V. (or is that just me?)”
MP3: Memoryhouse – This Will Be Our Year (The Zombies cover) Continue reading »

Oct 152010
 

Song of the Day posts one cool cover every morning. Catch up on past installments here.

Covers of Memoryhouse’s beautiful song “Lately” have been popping up all over the place since (the many versions of) the song’s release, and pretty much all of them have been lovely to say the least. However, Fort deClare’s cover is certainly one of the best. Fort deClare is one Sam Ramos, a 15 year old (!) from Virginia, who has been recording covers and original songs for almost a year and throwing them up on his MySpace. He seems to take a dreamy, folky approach to everything he does, which is perfectly suited to this particular song.

With the glut of covers of “Lately”, it can be pretty hard to stand out, but Fort deClare manages to do it. The strong musicianship and beautiful texturing along with a slightly faster tempo than most — which is driven by some beautifully played percussion starting about halfway through the song — help the track build up and soar into the ending. If he manages to keep recording songs like this and continues to build up his base of original work, Fort deClare will definitely be an artist to keep an eye on in the coming years. Continue reading »