Australian rock band The Temper Trap appeared on radio station triple J’s popular Like a Version program for the fourth time and this time out they decided to tackle Harry Styles.
But why Styles? “Obviously, we’re the wrong demographic to be listening to One Direction,” said lead singer Dougy Mandagi, laughing. “But the way [Harry’s] pivoted, his career, is amazing. I think we just all agreed, it’s a cool song to cover.” Continue reading »
Robert Fripp and Toyah Willcox have released a new episode of their popular YouTube series, “Sunday Lunch,” and included a MC5 cover to pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of punk rock. Continue reading »
I’ve listened to the Grateful Dead for more than 40 years. So I’m always pleasantly surprised when I stumble across a song, be it an original or cover, by the Dead that I have not heard.
Such was the case when I was listening to their recent archival release from their June 30, 1985 show at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland. I was scrolling through the tracklist and spotted “Keep on Growing.” Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock wrote and recorded the song as part of the supergroup Derek and the Dominoes for their classic 1970 album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The Dead covered the song just four times, three on the summer 1985 tour and once in 1986.
Margo Price closed out her performance at the 2026 edition of Farm Aid with a cover of a Blaze Foley song. (That same song was one of the covers on her most recent recording.) Continue reading »
One of the highlights of Never Enough: Versions, the album featuring artists interpreting the songs of the Turnstile record of the same name is Slayyyter and her take on “Birds.”
“Birds” was already pretty great, and a song that Turnstile uses to either open or close their sets. But Slayyyter’s take is a fascinating version of the song, somehow turning it into a dance track. And it’s pretty damn good song in that form, too. Continue reading »
So which Meshell Ndegeocello have we got here, on her new album Synonym? Is it the mercurial jazz bassist, or is it the nu-soul diva? Is it the singer on the fringes of hip-hop, or is it the pop polymath with fingers in each these pies and more? Probably the latter, given the exhausting range of potential styles summonsed forth by the extraordinarily diverse range of songs and guests. Synonym is a further Ndegeocello excursion into Coverland, where she gives her idiosyncratic polish to the concept of abstract musodiversity.
The prodigious Ndegeocello has racked up an impressive 16 albums, Synonym included, where she is the featured name, stemming back to 1993, together with a rack of guest and/or session appearances across a further 28. Encompassing all genres and bases, she has mixed her own material with a healthy regard for covers. These have notably included a whole disc revisiting songs made famous by Nina Simone, Pour une Âme Souveraine, and Ventriloquism, which took shot at a range of ’80s into ’90s R’n’B redoubtables. This time around there is an almost scattergun approach, as she tackles all comers. The Human League and Bob Dylan share her table with Tammy Wynette and J-Lo, just for starters. Moreover, Synonym is an all-duet album, calling in such conceivably disparate spirits as AHOHNI and Cynthia Erivo, Bill Callahan and Chaka Khan. Ooooooooooooookaaaaaay………
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